Ladies Fellowship

It's the Christmas season and we have been busy!!

The last couple of weeks of the semester I was a teacher to 13 very wild children! They tested me more those last three weeks than they did the first 3 months!! I think they had too much turkey and then they couldn't get Christmas out of their minds!! But it's all over! Well for the next two weeks at least! I can't believe I have taught a whole semester already...it flew by!! Even though I really need this break I know I will miss them all dearly!

We were busy with church things as well this past month. We had our Christmas Cantata last Sunday and also the school had their Christmas play the Friday before that.

Two Friday's ago we had our Ladies Christmas Fellowship. That's what I wanted to blog about today! The third Thursday of every month we have what we call Ladies Fellowship!

It is such a wonderful time!

All the ladies of the church are invited but normally it's just a handful either because of work or family commitments or because a lot of our members live a half hour away or so. We meet at the church and just have a nice time of fellowship and talk about the latest drama or stories in our lives and then our pastor's wife (more on her in a minute) gives us a devotional. After that we usually eat dessert and then we pass out the missionary letters that the church has gotten in the last month and we take turns each reading one out loud. It is a great time to keep track of what is going on with our church's missionaries! Then we pray for them and the needs that they have expressed in their letters!

I love this night! I have grown so close to the ladies in our church already and this night is always special. I learn so much too! It is nice to be able to hear from our pastor's wife on a regular basis.

She is a godly, sweet, considerate, wonderful lady. I love her! She is always ready to listen and always wants to know about what's going on in your life the good, the bad...all of it. She has a good eye and can tell if you are having a hard time with something and will just walk right up and give you a hug! I grew up in a larger church and although our pastor's wife was a great example to me just by watching her and listening when she did teach us ladies, it just isn't possible to have as close of a relationship as you can in a smaller church. I love it! I could go on and on about her.

One hilarious thing about her that makes me laugh...is that she is a texting QUEEN! haha...she is so funny! She loves to text! When I first moved out here in one of the first conversations we had she said to me.."So, do you text??" I said "Yes." She says "Great!! Me too!!" We have been texting ever since!

This is her and I at our Christmas Ladies Fellowship. I adore her!

The Christmas ladies fellowship is a little different than the others throughout the year. For one, EVERYONE comes! Two, we do it at someones home instead of at the church. Three, ALL the girls in the church are invited...babies, kids, teens. The other's throughout the year are just for the adult ladies so this is a special time for the girls! We are all together!

One of the things that we do is we all write in Christmas cards for all the missionaries and then they are sent out to be a blessing, so each of our missionaries knows that the ladies of our church have been praying for them throughout the year!

Then there is food! Lots of food! We all brought a little something!

My beautiful bestie!

Then there's my crazy sister!

Katie with Leilani at her first Christmas ladies fellowship!

Emily and Katrina Stager and I! I love these sweet girls!

Michelle and Kathy Stager...both are sweet sweet friends!

Love these two teen girls! One is my sister so I have to love her! :) The other is our pastors oldest daughter, Julia! Great young ladies!

After we ate, we had our devotional time and then we had a gift exchange! It was so fun. We all brought gifts and then we played a white elephant game. It was too complicated to tell on here but you will be able to see from the pictures below how fun it was!

Renee, we had the fellowship at her house this year! I love this pic of her!

There was a lot of laughing! This picture is so funny! I just had to post it!

The little girls had gifts too! They were very happy!

haha my mother in-law with her gift!

:)

Taking it all in!

Julia was happy with her earrings!

Having a great time!

Chell loved her gift!

At the end of the night we took a group photo! This is all of us(minus one or two that were sick or weren't able to make it)....(and plus Bryce..he isn't one of the ladies but he is too cute to stay out of the picture) :)

The Bethel Baptist Church ladies!

Christmas is approaching quickly!!! It's so hard to believe!

I have some quick exciting news to share that has nothing to do with this post.....but......

I get to go home tomorrow!!!!!

For a long time now I wasn't planning on going home this Christmas. I was having a hard time with that but it just wasn't going to be possible because Julian has to work basically double the amount than normal during this month and all the way till Christmas eve. His company (UPS) doesn't allow anyone off during the holidays. But just this last week my parents told me that as a Christmas present they wanted to fly me out there this week for a few days..while Julian is working... because I would be home alone basically all week. It was such a surprise and a blessing!! I am so thankful and so excited to see them and all my friends back home.

I will be back to spend Christmas with my hubby though!!!!!!!

We are very excited about our first Christmas together!