This Christmas season was unusual for our family.  We had a hard time figuring out how to celebrate it as a family as we felt somewhat stripped of our typical means and methods of celebrating Christmas.  Christmas day itself was spent in the car, traveling from Kosovo to Albania where we stayed through New Year’s Day.  However, the week prior to Christmas was full of special get-togethers specifically focused on Christ’s arrival here on earth.  Genti and Irena held a party for young people and had a great time with music, discussion, a Christmas video, and karaoke (always a hit!).  On Saturday the 20^th, we had a packed out crowd for the children’s program.  Fisnik shared the Christmas story with a creative twist and we passed out Samaritan’s purse Christmas boxes to all the kids who were present.  We had a great turn out that evening for our Saturday night service.  Something like 8 people came to church that night, which is more than I’ve seen in the 2 months we’ve been holding weekly services.  The next Tuesday evening each “unit” on our team invited a close family to have dinner with us.  We enjoyed a pretty good feast of food while engaging in great conversation together.  Only one of the families attends church with us, so we are praying for openness towards Christ in the lives of the others as well.  Finally, together with the other 2 Christian fellowships in Gjilan, we presented a Christmas program for the entire city to attend at the local theater.  This was a program complete with worship songs, a Christmas poem, special music, and a “hometown” rendering of the Christmas story with a full cast of amateur actors and a mini choir.  Many of those we invited were in attendance that night.  This was a great opportunity to publicly demonstrate why Christmas is celebrated and what its significance is.  Praise God that He is real and alive, and that His word is always true.  What an incredible gift!