December & Malaria...

View from our living room (Mountains!!)



Wow.. already halfway december! Time flies!!! I notice with our fulltime jobs it`s hard to keep track of time. At school there are so many wonderfull preparations for Christmas going on, and I am enjoying the atmosphere this decembermonth at work every day. Unfortunately exept for the Christmas tablecloth Sinterklaas (my mom) gave me when I was in Holland, there isn`t much Christmas in our home yet! But soon I will have time to get into our attic and find our Christmas box somewhere!
Being back home, even if it was just for a very short time, was wonderful. It was so nice to meet my family and be able to find everyone healthy. I enjoyed it very much.

Also, my calling as a nursery (?) Sunbeam teacher is going very well. We almost made it to `remove`:) all of the parents from class and my 3 two-year-olds are being so nice to me- they didn`t even cry! And they are listening so well.. I hope it`s not just my weird accent that they`re fascinated with, and they won`t turn into disobedient children in a few weeks- but I`m really proud of them.

At work, at school, the teenagers in our class were very busy the past week producing handcreme or lotion. The Swiss television and radio have recently started a huge project called: `Jeder rappe zaehlt` which basicly means, every cent counts.
http://www.jrz.ch/www/de/drs3/jeder-rappen-zaehlt/155091.event.html
With this project they are collecting money for the many many people who suffer because of Malaria (about a million people, especially young children, still die because of Malaria each year)!
Dutch radio has participated in similar projects this for the past 3 years now, and now CH copied this. 3 Radiomoderators live in a glass box in the middle of city and shopping center Bern. They make radio there, don`t eat for a whole week and people can donate money by requesting songs that they in turn pay at least CHF 10,- for. Some people donate CHF 100,- in turn for hearing their favorite song at the radio!

So our class participated in producing and selling handcreme. Within 1 day all of our handcreme was sold, so we have to make some making more, but the kids gathered 750,- Franks already!! Isn`t that great? They worked so hard decorating the boxes and selling them.
I am so very impressed time and time again, by their endurance to get something done. It takes some of them a whole schoolday to type with a special p.c. system the words: `Lavendel Handcreme`. (So we could stick that on top of every single box.) I would -in many cases- have given up a long time before they do. I learn so much from them and am thankful everyday that I can walk, ride my bike, pick up something that fell down, go to the toilet without needing help, move and talk the way and when I`d like to. To work with teens and children with so many different disabilities and handicaps, (sometimes even in their young age progressive), often makes me very humble.
Back to malaria, you can take a look at www.jrz.ch - there is a webcam where you can follow the radiomoderators 24/7 livestream aus der Glasbox. It is wonderful to see how much money is being donated for more research, expensive medicine and musquito nets.

I`m also looking forward to celebrating Christmas with my family in law. Christmas is celebrated here similar to the way it is celebrated in the States. Everyone is buying presents for everyone and the Decembermonth is a very good time to think about others, who might not be blessed with everyting we enjoy each day...

It doesn`t look like we will be able to send around a lot of Christmas cards and whishes, but to those of you that reads our blog we would like to say:

Enjoy the atmoshpere of Christmas and we hope we will all be able to think a little more often, about what our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ did for us, and how much They must love us, when Jesus came to this earth to live and die for us..
And also, think of how They would like to have us help, love, and serve others, the way they would, so that we also can serve Them.

That you will feel warm and be bright and shiny happy these cold and dark Christmas days, encircled by those you love is our wish and prayer for all of you!

Have a great Christmas and Start of the new Year!