Merry little Christmas

The Samuel's and the food :)

Lotta and the baby and me :)

Santa Samuel :)

They were so excited about their little bracelets and Allibaba pants from India :)

Moments [[again]]

What to do, what to do!? Samuel is home from work now and sleeping... and it's Christmas morning and I'm all alone in a quiet kitchen :( I started going through videos/photos from the last 4 years of Christmas... all in Africa! That definitely warms my heart.

A little Christmas dance from 2008 in Ethiopia :)

The huge box of [[40]] enormous sugar cookies and gifts mom and dad mailed us!

Me and Naftali sticking snowflakes on our African windows :)

 And... our Christmas rat! Caught by Mohammed!

Christmas service for the homeless and crippled in our Harar Church of Joy... including a live donkey and goats in our nativity drama :)

My sister's 4th baby [[Levi Danger]] came as a Christmas gift!

A late-Christmas visit to USA

Family remember: 

"the more you drink [[coffee]] the better it gets!" -great grandma 

hahahaha

Covies :) Enjoying Starbucks on a cold morning in Pittsburgh :)

Christmas 2010! Just about every one of my favorite photos has to do with this kid!

"It's my color!" -Ashagre

Opening presents with Zenabwa and Naftali! Love Zed!! She cheers non-stop the entire time :)

Samuel and Naftali :)

My favorite :)

The best team!

"God Jul!" (Swedish "Merry Christmas")

Opening another package from mom and dad under our little tree :)

Baking gingerbread elephants and hippos with Sarah!

I never know what is to come but when I look back at the last few years... living on 4 different continents, chasing the unreached people groups, preaching, adventuring, skyping with loved ones, backpacking, being a newly wed... and I look forward at the next year of living out of suitcases and moving to another new country... I know that God carries me every step of the way. Like I said in my post from Thanksgiving... God gives us moments to enjoy in life. Tradition, glitz, stuff... isn't so important. What matters is moments together with the Holy Spirit and the precious people God puts in our lives. This lonely Christmas morning in Sweden is just another moment that I will look back on in the years to come...

This afternoon will be spent with some best friends... longing!!!!!

Hubs

I have the best hubby in the world. The world. My hero and friend! Thank you for dancing with me to Christmas songs and cuddling up with Disney cartoons and coffee this afternoon :) Now it's late Christmas Eve night and Samuel is away working his second night-shift. No fun to sit here without you love... but when you get home at 6am, make sure to wake me so that we can wish each other a Merry Christmas before you fall asleep :) Bubba!!! Älskar dig så mycket!!!

List

MerRy cHriSTmaS list...

[x] daddy and mama in Hawaii
[x] family in Ohio
[x] Ethiopian family in Harar
[x] my sister and wes and kiddos in KY
[x] baby braduhhh
[x] my covies.. you know who you are ;)
[x] Swedish family and friends
[x] Indian friends and heroes
[x] Youngstown!
[x] fellow M's all over the world
[x] all my wonderful blog readers!

I wish I could gather you all and put you in my little living room to celebrate Christmas together! My heart is in so many corners of the earth today :)

... and Happy Birthday my Jesus! Love You!

"Christmas Table"

 If anyone's counting... two days until Christmas! Still doesn't feel quite like that for me... half of me is still stuck in India, and the other half is tiptoeing through Swedish Christmas traditions. Everyone is speaking about "Christmas table" of cold ham, caviar, mini 'hot dogs', fermented fish, meatballs, cabbage, raw herring... I just don't think I can fully adapt to that menu! Strange for my American taste buds... If I had my choice, every holiday would resemble Thanksgiving :)

Tomorrow [[Christmas Eve]] is the big day here in Scandinavia. Everyone will be opening up their presents in the evening. I guess Santa visits Europe first and that's why the American's have to wait until the morning of the 25th :) Samuel is working the next 2 nights... so it'll just be me and some cozy Christmas songs... waiting for Jesus' birthday...

Spent some time with my favorite little girlies Elsa and Siri yesterday... In LOVE! Can't wait to spend my 25th with them too!!!

Old School

Found some old school photos of Samuel this morning... 

Looks like Leonardo DiCaprio in Titanic 

Hottie

Bible School

Jonatan and Samuel in Bible School

High School Graduation..........

On a mission trip in Spain 2002 

Punk rocker

Samuel Eriksson!

Monday

Monday, December 19: 

Set up the Christmas tree at the in-law's house today! Still waiting for snow. Enjoying the lights of Sweden and dreaming about India. So happy my God is a holy God.

Over and out.

SC

SC -- no, not santa clause.... Sugar Cookies!!! This recipe was passed down from my Great Grandma.. (who is still making them herself!) They are the most delicious, scrumptious, delicate, gooey, not too sweet, little wonders of my childhood! We always ate them for breakfast on Christmas day :) Two years ago in Ethiopia... mom and dad actually mailed them to us! 40 of them! And my mom's are literally enormous. It took about 10 days for us to get them and they were packed so well that we were all able to eat them in the African heat through the holidays. 

This is the first time I've been able to whip up these little treats as a married woman. I was nervous... but I think they turned out swell... 

Do not ask for the recipe... In the words of my dad, you have to be married-in or born-in to get it! But if you are living in Sweden, you are more than welcome to stop by for a smaka :)

Merry Christmas week!

Eyes of the nations

Our 6 week adventure across Northern India ended with a 60 hour non-stop journey home to Sweden by trains, taxis planes, auto rickshaws... we were beat! Oh but our hearts are so full! I can't describe how madly in love we are with the unreached people and how big our dreams are growing. There is a LOT of work ahead of us, but there is nothing else in the world we would rather be doing. India is stunning. It's insanely polluted, dirty, full of the richest spices, scary traffic, mustaches, glittering fabrics, powerful mountains, monkeys, elephants, and people people people. Millions and millions and millions of people.

I took 2000 photos in just 6 weeks. Gah! Expect to see lots of beautiful Indian faces on your computer screen for the next few months. This blog is going to be bubbling over (as if it hasn't already been) with the call to GO! One of my many life-goals is to inspire people to GO through photography... A photo holds the power to change a life. The eyes of the nations are piercing and alluring and calling...

Happy Friday to you wherever you are in the world :)

Varanasi

Varanasi, India. A place of raw life and death. Overwhelming colors, smells, culture, religion. Chaos. Beauty. And everywhere... Everywhere... A cry for life, truth, love, God.






















Pray for India.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Go Go Go

We are in Varanasi.. at the Ganges river. We arrived after a night-train yesterday morning. The moment these famed hindu waters came into sight, I started to weep. I've been longing to be here for a long, long time. This morning we were up at 5am to catch an early boat trip before daylight... we drifted for two hours... watching people come out and worship the rising sun, bathe in the "holy" water, wash clothes, meditate, dip and splash, feed the fish for good carma. They believe the waters absorb everything unclean. The river is especially famous for receiving the dead and sending them to heaven's eternity... or so they think. Only by dying here can you finally end the reincarnation process.. so the old come from all over India and beyond to die in Varanasi. I saw two cremation areas today. They are totally open, visible to all... with burning fires 24 hours a day. A corpse was set aflame just 3 feet infront of me. Can you understand?? People are seeking and performing and seeking and performing... just to fight their way into another hopefully better life, or to get out of this world to the divine.........but they don't know Jesus! HE is the only way to Father God, to life, to eternity, to hope, to love, to freedom. There are 5 kinds of people that can't be cremated including pregnant women, children, holy men, some diseased... they have rocks tied to them and are tossed directly in the water when they die.

Can you hear the cries of the lost? Can you see in your heart the spiritual darkness the unreached live in day after day???

GO GO GO give them the truth of Jesus Christ!! No works, no religion... just love, freedom, life!