.....and it came to pass....

Dear friends & family.... well, Christmas Day has come to pass and the Harpers are feeling bad that they have not updated you with this year's news.  We've loved hearing from you but somehow the end of this year has caught us time short!  We trust you understand.  It's been an interesting year with some real highs but, true to life, there have been some low points as well.

The biggest high was Mark & Natalie's wedding on March 20.  It was a very happy family occasion.  The weather was fine and balmy, the setting lovely and the wedding party looked gorgeous.  We're not half biased!!  It was a thrill also to have my brother conduct the ceremony and our good friend and pastor Ray perform the formal legalities.  As a family we were blessed to have my cousin Margaret and her husband Norm, travel from Canada for the wedding.  This was their first trip to NZ and they were able to spend 6 weeks here.  Their son Aaron (on his second visit) was in the wedding party.  
The married couple spent their honeymoon in Hawaii.

It's great to have both of our boys (& girls!) living just a few minutes away from us.  However this may change in the middle of 2011 as Mark & Tilly are applying for a travel/work visa for Canada.  Mark has now qualified as a builder and would hope to use those skills there.  Of course, what a wonderful travel opportunity that would be for us!  I'd just love to be able to spend time in Kamloops with my aunty and two of my cousins and their families. 

Jared & Michelle do not have any plans to move away, but they have been blessed with a trip to Hong Kong & Japan with Michelle's family in Feb.  They will be skiing in the northernmost island of Japan.  While up in that part of the world they are going to take a side trip to Vietnam and spend 10 days travelling there.  Jared is still developing his music teaching and it has been great to see his client base build in the latter 6 months of this year.

Although we hadn't had any plans to travel this year, we ended up going to Mongolia!  A friend we met in Mongolia in 2004 reconnected with us via email.  We were so thrilled to be in touch again with Boldo who invited us to visit him and see the orphanage that he has started in Choibalsan.  It's in the north-eastern corner of Mongolia very close to the China and Russian borders.  We loved working with the 26 children and getting to know them.  We also worked with Boldo in the church that he is pastoring.  It was a thrill to visit our Mongolian friends Badmaa & Ulzzi in Erdenet, an overnight train trip away from UB.  We spent time in Ulanbaatar and were able to stay in Craig's Uncle's apartment. For more information and photos scroll down to previous blogs.

It was a thrill to have a barbecue for 20 of the students who attend the language school Liz teaches at.  We had this at the end of November and were blessed with a beautiful fine evening.  Our friends, Dudley & Jenny, ably assisted us with food prep and clean-up. After dinner we went upstairs and had a great time playing games.  We were truly enriched by this experience and loved seeing different ages (15-60) and cultures mixing together.  We hope to repeat it again in February. 

We had a lovely quiet Christmas Day with just our kids..... it seemed that the extended family and others that we normally spend Christmas Day with were away this year.... although we seemed a bit skinny on the ground, we were quite thankful we didn't have to entertain alot of people here because our backyard has all been dug up.  Mark & Jared are extending our deck and what seemed like a straightforward job has turned out to be relatively major when it was discovered that alot of the existing piles were rotten and there was concrete for Africa just below the top layer of dirt.  It's all going to be worth it I'm sure, but wont be finished for another week or so.  We had a Christmas Eve traditional dinner here and then a brunch on Christmas Day.  We went to Jared & Michelle's for Christmas Dinner in the evening and enjoyed spending time with Michelle's family.

This comes with our love & hope that the true spirit of Christmas will fill your hearts and homes with peace & love over this fesitive season and that 2011 will be filled with God's richest blessings.