Merry Christmas from Liberia

Dear Family and Friends,

I hope this finds you well and finding a peace that passes all understanding this Christmas.        We are looking forward to a Christmas with David, Winter, my mom, and Winter’s boyfriend.  My refrigerator and pantry are full.  We have activities planned and rooms readied.  It will be wonderful to be all together as we celebrate the birth of our savior.

Here is a little bit about our month.  We began December with the cleft lip project.  Like last year,  Noel flew extra flights bringing patients in and out of the remote regions. Most days he had two flights with a few days getting home much later than normal.  That week the team did 50 surgeries.  It was a week full of miracles.  The shipment was delayed but the team had just what they needed to be safe and do the surgeries until the shipment arrived.  One mom was at the hospital for a treatment of her own when a nurse for the project saw her daughter’s cleft lip.  The nurse was able to get the daughter into surgery that same day.  What a gift!  As the stories come in, I will try to give you the links.  For now, here is a picture of a little boy who had surgery.

While visiting over at the camp where the patients and guardians were staying, I feel in love with a little girl named Beatrice.  Our introduction came when she came over to me naked and wanted me to put her skirt on.  When I came back that same day, she ran and hugged me, and we ended up playing catch with a beach ball for a few minutes.  I later found out that she would be getting surgery the next day at another hospital in town for her eye.  Her lip would have to wait for now.  She had been injured by acid that had been thrown at her mom.  Pray for this little one who had so much joy and energy.

The past two Fridays, four children on our SP team have been in my school room having craft and cookie fun.  The first Friday we decorated and ate cookies as well as doing a craft.  This last Friday, we did more crafts including some ornaments they could give as gifts for Christmas.  They were full of energy and joy for Christmas.

It has been a good year.  Liberia feels more like home, and we continue to enjoy the work God has allowed us to do.   Winter is in the middle of her 3rd year at Liberty.  If all goes according to plan, she will be graduating with a degree in sign language in Spring of 2019.  David is senior at BFA.  His plan is to attend California Baptist in California and work on a degree in commercial photography.  If you want to check out some of his work, his website is davidfouts.com.    He is enjoying his last year in High School.  Here is a picture of him with his dorm brothers and the daughter of the dorm parents.

Lastly, Noel built a pizza oven.  It was a sweaty, long job but it will be well worth it.  We tried it out last night, and the pizzas were great.  He has a few repairs to make.  I have a pizza crust dough to tweak.  And hopefully we will be ready for a second test.  One challenge here is finding enough wood.  Between the drift wood we found on the beach and some limbs that had just been trimmed around campus we are good for now.  Thankfully Noel has found a chain saw that he can use for some of the chopping plus his camping saw is getting a good workout this month.

We would love to hear from you all this Christmas.  I will try to post a picture of the family once we are all together.  Love you all.  Thank you for all your prayers and support this year.  We are blessed by all you do for us.  Teresa for the Fouts

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