This is just a quick note to say hi and wish you all “Feliz Navidad!” Things are going well here. I’ve been helping my friend Corina this week, with her “Christmas on the Streets” meal. Her ministry is planning on feeding 4400 street people a Christmas diner. So I’ve been hauling ovens (12 so far) and freezers that people have donated for us to use to cook the meal. Tomorrow I’m picking up a cow (butchered and whatnot) and on Saturday I’ll be helping to deliver some of the meals. It’s been a lot of fun. A bit overwhelming at times…but fun. Unless you see it, it’s a bit hard to imagine. Yesterday Corina drove up with 50 or so big bunches of platanos (like a banana that you cook) in her SUV (that’s probably around 2500 platanos). She couldn’t see anything out her windows and couldn’t shift into reverse. =) They just finished preparing 460 chickens to cook and tomorrow 600 kilos of pork should be arriving. Boys from the home will start cooking rice at 3 AM Friday night in order to have enough by Saturday afternoon. Last week I hauled 9 big bags of a kind of puffed corn that we eat here as a snack or desert. When I say big, picture bags 9 feet long and 5 feet around. It took two trips and they were piled considerable higher than my truck. Usually Corina sends out an update after Christmas so I’ll forward that on to all of you. It’s always an interesting read.

I have visitors here for Christmas, which is great. Three guys from back home in Saskatoon are on their way around the world on a year long missions trip. They plan to hit every continent (after South America they head for the South Pacific and the then Asia, India, Africa, Turkey, Greece, Europe…). It’s quite an endeavor! They’re great guys, and it’s already been a ton of fun having them here. We’re all crowded into my little house for the next month. Today we were planning what we’re going to cook for Christmas dinner. =) Bolivians celebrate on Christmas Eve (at midnight no less), so after we recover from that, we’re going to do a good Canadian meal on Christmas day. It’ll all be good!

The home is going well. As always there are things to celebrate and things to mourn. Two of my good friends left last week. So please pray for them. Both are very gifted guys, but both also have very poor families with virtually no resources. So…university and good jobs will be out of the question for them. It’s also made it difficult for Andres who I’ve written about before. I know he’s feeling the stress of being alone at the home. The on fellow especially was one of his buddies.

But at the same time, God is working. Relationships are growing, and I’m seeing many of the guys opening up about their lives and pasts. This week I’ve been spending a lot of time with one of the guys. He’s a great guy. He plays guitar with our music group and has written a number of really good songs. He taught himself English (listening to Coldplay!) and is now working on Japanese. Then he plans to learn Italian. He’ll tell you very quickly about how God has healed so much of the pain in his life. Unfortunately he still struggles a lot with hearing voices in his head and very negative thoughts and feelings. For whatever reason, there seems to be a lot of strong spiritual attack in his life. His understanding of who he is, and who God is, can be a bit confused at times. But he’s making lots of progress. I know that there’s something in his life that bothers him a lot. He alludes to it, but will never talk about it. We had a big conversation the other day, and he finally said that he’d like to talk about whatever this is. So…this week we’re going to sit down and work through Neil Anderson’s “Steps to Freedom” and talk through some of this. So please pray for each of us. Protection and wisdom would be good things.

As well, David needs to make some important decisions in the next couple of weeks about his future. I think he’s a bit discouraged because it seems like everyone has a different opinion as to what he should do. I certainly do… =) But at the same time, I’m trying to encourage him and support him in whatever he decides. But please pray for both of us in this as well.

Not too much else to say. I’ve included a couple of pictures for your enjoyment. As you can tell…there’s been a bit of rain here today (the green truck is me!). The other pic is of the guys who are visiting me as we sit in a nice coffee shop and e-mail all of you. If you’re interested in following their adventures, you can go to worldfaithtour.blogspot.com and follow along.

Have a great Christmas everyone! Enjoy the snow…I miss it. =) And as always, thanks for praying.

Ken

PS Oh ya….I guess I should add that I have a girlfriend. =) Before I get 150 e-mails freaking out and asking when I’m getting married, lets all take a big breath please. Keep in mind who we’re talking about here….if you all freak out, I’ll freak out…and then where will we be?

Anyhow, I’ll write more about that situation later…. =)