Fröhliche Weihnachten!

Merry Christmas from Austria!!  We send our warmest greetings and wishes for a fantastic Christmas and blessed New Year.  It is my prayer that Christmas celebrations everywhere will be full of wonder and joy as we celebrate the Savior's birth.

Our preparations for the days of Christmas have been blessed and challenging.  The challenges of making Christmas "right" in a new country, dealing with the absence of family, and finding the perfect gifts can put a gloominess to the mood of the season.  But when compared to all the blessings, there can be little gloominess in this blessed season.  We are still so thrilled to be in Austria, to be serving the Lord in this capacity, and sharing in the harvest/planting of God's Love in the hearts of Austrians and Internationals on a daily basis.  What an awesome life and challenge that God has blessed us with! Still feels like a dream.  No one wake me, please!

Blessed to help out, I agreed to play a small role in the Christmas play at Grace Church this year.  I played the Grandfather shepherd, fitting that my gray hair and shaggy beard came in handy, visited by the angels that blessed Christmas morn.  Nathan also played a shepherd and the girls were Angels.  Bethany sang a solo of "O Come All Ye Faithful" while Caylah sang in a trio of "Silent Night", which was sung in Gerrman, English and Persian.  All together, an awesome glimpse into Heaven as the Nations celebrate Jesus' birth in their own tongues!

The most difficult part of Christmas for us this year is the absence of family.  Christmas, for both the Overbys and Powells, has always been about family.  This is our first Christmas to ever be away from both of our families.  It's made it difficult since Christmas is my absolute favorite season of the year! To help us make it through, we asked our kids to recall the things that in the States made Christmas special to them.  Once we got through the "family not being here" tears, we agreed on some special things like cookies, movies, games, and food that we could have here to help us make Christmas in Austria special.  Overall, we are looking forward to our celebration and hope and pray that it will stay focused on the truth of Jesus and the sacrifice He made for us both at His birth and death on the cross. 

"He sacrificed Heaven for a stable,

He gave up glory for some hay.

He left a throne for a lowly manger

to be born on Christmas day."

Merry Christmas from the Overbys!!