Happy New Year

We have just come from a strange type of watch night service. It's 8:30 pm and we've already been out for half an hour. Due to conflicting plans of some of the church members, the service this new year's eve was set for 5 to 8. The time was very nice for us since we have young children and don't want to keep them up too late. I brought my camera to take lots of pictures, but the battery went dead about 2 minutes into the service. :o( We started the evening with musical chairs, once with the young children (all 4 of them), and once again with the 4 teenagers. It was kind of neat to see that I'm viewed as the church pianist. As soon as the game started and they needed music, they all looked to me to sit down and play something. After this game, we had a gift exchange. We were all told to bring a gift with a cost of between 12-30 NIS ($3-$7).......that's hard to do out here, but we managed. My son got an adult's necktie at first, but was able to exchange later for some toy cars. My husband got pot holders and kitchen towels.....I guess those are mine now. My daughter received a fleece blanket, and I got a knit scarf and hat. The game itself was fun.....especially when the funnier moments happened, like a boy getting a purse. There were supposed to be a few more games, but they got cut short due to the time, and everyone's desire to start eating! (Baptists around the world all love to eat!) It turns out the Pastor's birthday is tomorrow (he'll be 73 years young), so one of the families brought a cake for him. There were also turnovers, some filled with goat cheese, and the other with some kind of potato.....they were good, and a nice change from the sweet American variety. We brought a vegetable tray with our new favorite, hummus, as a dip. We had a good time of fellowship and eating. After the food, we went around and introduced ourselves and gave a short testimony of our salvation. I always love hearing the testimony of others. Last, our preacher gave a message. When the service was only 15 minutes away from ending, my husband's phone rang. It turns out that he was supposed to come in to work tonight, but somehow he didn't know about it. My husband is very responsible, and doesn't just forget things like that. I don't know whose fault it was, but I believe that it was the work of the Lord. If he had known that he had to work tonight, we wouldn't have been able to go to church at all. As it turned out this way, we got to stay for the whole service. I'm actually sitting in my husband's office at his computer, typing this post to take up the time it will take for him to finish his job.
I do have a prayer request, if you please. There is a lady in our church named Mrs. Khoury. When we first got here she was very quiet and shy; I never heard anything from her. She has really become more comfortable around us and has become very dear to us all. She doesn't speak a lot of English, but she tries. She laughs, jokes with us, and acts silly at times. We found out last week that she was having tests done for uterine cancer. The results were supposed to take a month to come back, but by the grace of God they came back early. Yesterday she found out that she will need a partial hysterectomy. We found out tonight that she will have this surgery on the 2nd. Our language barriers prevent us from knowing all of the details, but we know enough to pray for the Lord's safety and the health of our dear sister. Any prayers for her would be greatly appreciated.
I hope you all have a blessed new year!