beginning to look a lot like Christmas

The highlight of Christmas-time at Emmaus Biblical Seminary is soccer matches.  

Namely, the staff vs. student soccer match, in which the student body picks the best 10 soccer players out of 60, and the staff picks their best 10 soccer players out of 13.  

I know this might not look very Christmas-y to you, but this is our 7th year of ringing in the Christmas season with soccer matches...so it feels QUITE festive to us!  Red and green jerseys, palm trees, loud speaker...Christmas!

GOAL!

The kids love this tradition because there is loud music and lots of happy people.

Staff, of course, didn't win.  But it was only 1-0, so we were far less embarrassed than previous years.

Lily learned how to blow up her own balloons at school yesterday :)  She is VERY proud.

Phil expertly trimmed the lines this year, which everyone LOVED.

Throughout the match, these guys are talking continually, while playing lots of techno music. 

Gorgeous.  You may not realize that you wish you were here...but you wish you were here yesterday.  It really was so much fun.

I'm now taking all my pictures with Matt's phone...but they sure do turn out great!  I feel old saying this, but MAN, phones these days :)

At halftime, dance music blares and everyone, well, dances.  Except for the staff, who was passed out.

Belony was the staff super-star, for sure, but with such tiny goals (standard Haitian size) and the top 10 students against us...we just couldn't sink one.

Sofie helped by filling all the cones with grass.

It was a great time of fun after a long season of work for all the staff and students...so thankful for this special body God has woven us into.

We were all shocked and saddened after the game to find our Ella-girl had passed away.  Ella is the little puppy Lily received from Konpech a few years ago (remember the demon-dog everyone was worried about?)  She's been such a gentle pet, faithful friend to our kids and constant companion to Boone.  

She was three weeks away from delivering puppies, and after struggling for several days with bizarre symptoms and seeming to be in labor, we found her throwing up yesterday (still thinking it was just pre-labor) and then gone in the yard after the game. 

Lily, who due to life in general has already experienced quite a bit of death, shared with us her theology of heaven and suffering by noting simply, "Well.  We saw her in pain the last few days.  And now we know she is in heaven, where there are no tears and no pain.  So let's try to be happy for her, even though we are sad, ok guys?"

SO.  We're trying!  If only someone could explain that to Boone :(

Praising the Lord in the good and the bad!