On Friday evening we had our annual candlelight service with Scripture reading and songs. It was a great time to be with our community here in Panama.
As with all events held here, we sent many days leading up to it getting ready. The whole area was swept and cleaned. Even Cinderella, in her fanciest dress helped out! 😅
We made a few bouquets from the weeds around the property for some of the friends who attend Bible study with us.
The sun was setting right as people started to arrive and it looked great! There was a table set up with drinks and snacks for after the service.
Many of our friends in the community made it out for the service. Even if Christ wasn't born on December 25, the fact is that he still came, and, because of this, we were celebrating the birth of our savior this evening.
There was a short welcome and prayer before we got started. We sang many traditional Christmas hymns and everyone sounded great. Some of the children also led us in one of the songs.
A child from each family also read a portion of scripture about the birth of Jesus.
Our friend, Luis, also gave a message that was really great.
During the last song, we lit our candles. We didn't have one for everyone, but we had enough for at least one member of each family to have one. We will need to buy some more for next year!
At the end, we all were able to shine our lights. It was such a beautiful scene - it always is!
The kids then lit up the bonfire our son had built. It was pretty big and the bamboo inside of it would pop like fireworks as each section heated up! It startled everyone!
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Everyone had a great time! So many smores were consumed! Ha!
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Snacks, snacks, and more snacks!
It was such a lovely evening. We were so glad to have our community join us for the service. We are so thankful to God that His Son did come to this earth and we celebrate by remembering his birth.