winter games...

It’s that time of year again! It snuck up on us, and suddenly there are 2 more days of class until Christmas Break! The annual Emmaus Biblical Seminary Christmas Party was Thursday night, following the big Staff vs. Students soccer game.

This game is a BIG deal. After weeks of practice and “Pastoral trash talk”, the building of two goals out of pieces of wood and rice sacks, and choosing of captains, forwards, goalies, refs and DJs, the match began.

Neither team had enough shoes among them, and it was almost comical to watch players go in and out of the game, rapidly swapping out shoes of all types and sizes. (Notice Matt is in socks in half these pictures ☺ ) Every time anyone almost got a goal, the students would go WILD, and Lily, sure that something was wrong, burst into tears each time.

However, NO one ever scored, and a rather pitiful and debatable shoot-out ended in victory for the staff (for the first time…probably EVER.) Pitiful or not, you would have thought the staff won the World Cup, and proudly paraded a tiny golden trophy for all the young whippersnappers to see!

It was a FUN fun time, and a joyful time of relationship between staff and students. It was fun to be FRIENDS and not at all professors and students, missionaries and pastors.

The big game was followed by an annual Christmas program/party, in which the students and staff share devotionals, sing songs, pray together, do some skits and comedy routines, and clap. For everyone. A lot.

It was a lot of fun, though we had hoped to better understand Haitian humor by year three…and that was NOT the case. We rolled with laughter because the guys were rolling with laughter, but man, just like my students never think that sarcasm is humorous, we didn’t get why, well, ANYTHING was particularly funny tonight.

Lily, following our "Arms Up!" command..

Lily and Olie, helping out the cooks...


I LOVE that our God “gets” us each…That our joy is His, that He knows our intricate parts intimately, and that culture is N O T H I N G to Him…just us, His kids. We LOVE being His kids with these men and women! Thank you, Lord, for the gift of being YOURS here in Haiti!