🎄Go. Tell.

Hello to our family and friends!                                                        December 2023

 Is it just me, or have you noticed too? It seems Christmas preparations have started so much earlier this year. Our neighbour down the road had his swinging Christmas-bell light display ding-donging outside his house in mid-November. Radio stations started their "all Christmas songs" formats weeks ago. The delivery company vans furiously flash up and down the road. It's like we want to wrap up the preparations early maybe so we can have a long time to savor the fun.   

That gets me to thinking..... those extra minutes we have now could be put to good use. We have time to 🎶Go Tell It On The Mountain 🎶 and Go Tell The Good News ev’rywhere-ere-ere-ere.   We have time to talk to that neighbour with the bell and encourage him to join us for a Christmas event at church. We have time to talk to those people who seem extra chatty in the stores and agree that “yes, everyone is more friendly at Christmas because we are open to the love of Jesus in our lives”, and “wouldn’t it be great if we were open always?” Go. Tell.  

We are excited about sharing the Good News again soon in Roatan when we go for our winter session in January. In reality lots of times it seems like we are the learners as so many have experiences where they see God in their lives and they are eager to share with us.

This is the time of the year when school wraps up for the year. We are involved with kids from Modelo public school (photo in the top banner includes 4 students we watch over), students at Instituto Roatan, Sandy Bay Adventist School and the cute kindergarten school in the colonia. Graduation ceremonies were held this week for Enrique and Grace (grade 9) as well as for Matthew and Nazarat in kindergarten. We were excited to hear that Vashny had received an honours certificate for her studies this year in grade 6. This is Vashny's first year with bilingual studies, and we are so proud of her. 

We were able to help Pastor Dino and his wife Carolina take a much-needed study vacation in Carolina’s hometown in El Salvador. It was a time of refreshment for them as they attended a pastors’ conference and then just spent time with family and friends and even played tourists in the city.  Dino goes full steam when he is involved in church work. We were pleased to see him take the time to unwind. Larry says both Dino and Carolina look more relaxed in this photo than we've seen them for a long time. 

Larry and I will be in Roatan for two and a half months this session. We are looking forward to real face-to-face/heart-to-heart visits. It will be our first time to meet Greicy and Nahun’s little one. Yeisy Milagros was born in early October. Greicy sent me a picture of Mili’s big brother and sister reading to her a few days after she was born. I hope she will let me rock and read to her. 

Larry will spend time doing his thing wherever he is needed. Elias keeps saying he wants Larry's advice on a new van - or car - or .... Dino wants to join us visiting in the Colonia. We will both check in with our students and arrange for enrolments and tuitions. School will start-up in early February, so there will be opportunities for back-to-school shopping. Once school begins, I am hoping to be involved with more reading and English instruction. As we have learned – we may make plans, but once we arrive in Roatan, God directs our hands and feet. 

We are so thankful to our supporters for being with us throughout this year. We know that we are held in prayer – we can feel God’s direction and protection. We feel that we are the connection between those who are able to provide support and those who need support. 

We also want to wish you all Merry Christmas.  We hope to catch up with many in the next few weeks and give this greeting heart-to-heart. We are hopeful that this Christmas you have the gift of time, that you like others have had a jump on the preparations and so you have time. Go! Tell!

 Merry Christmas! Larry and Susan