We hope you are all doing well and recovering from all the end of the year festivities! More so we hope that Christmas brought you deeper meaning in life through a greater understanding and awareness of Jesus who came to earth for us all. We hope too that through Him you have found greater hope for this new year!
We spent the 4 Sundays of December celebrating Advent with our church. Each Sunday we celebrate a unique theme to Christ's coming to earth. On December 24th, as a church we were blessed with the opportunity to celebrate Christmas with the residents at the local home for the mentally and physically disabled. Our church although though we have very little income was able to gift to the center a brand new clothes dryer. Although the center is run by the Albanian government, it receives only a small portion of all the support they need. We as a church have been learning to give generously as Christ gave so generously to us. We are learning to give even when we have little. We are learning to recognize the needs around us and give to those. We as a church do not want to exist for ourselves but to bless others and make a difference in the city of Korce. Finally, on December 26th we had our final Advent/Christmas service where the youth of the church lead us in Christmas songs and shared with us a drama they had prepared. After service we celebrated Christ's birth together by eating "petulla", a typical Albanian deep-fried desert, sort of donut like, served to friends and family at the birth of a newborn.
The New Year quickly approached and in Albania it is always the larger of festivals of the year. Of course it is a great time with family and friends and worth celebrating, but we always try to make our greatest celebration Christ's birth, whom without we would have no new year.
We wish you a happy new year and that more than ever before you would experience Jesus, the one who came to be God with us.
Much love and thanks to you for your prayers and generous support!
Sean, Vita & Eva Grace
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