So another year has been and gone... It has been a bit subdued in our house recently and it was all we could do to see in new year at Australian time before falling in to bed.

Christmas was a good time - we were treated to a four hour Christmas programme at church where our friends danced, sang, acted to roars of laughter (much of which was entirely lost on us) and spoke. There are a few poor pictures copied below. After this we were ready for our dhal bhaat. On Christmas eve Elle had helped prepare some of the vegetables needed to feed the anticipated 1000 people - last year they had cooked for 800 and this was not enough!! All cooked over fires in giant pots in the field behind church and all really tasty.

Being here in Nepal and with INF's work gave us a new insight into the real meaning of Christmas. One of the major causes of infant death here in Nepal and one of the key focus areas for INF's community health work is the tradition that childbirth is unclean and therefore women cannot give birth to children in the home. In rural areas childbirth often still takes place in the animal shed, mothers are often alone and unsupported, and if they survive, mother and baby must stay in the shed until they are 'clean' again, a period of up to three weeks.

It only dawned on me recently after a trip to Mugu where we saw plenty of the filthy, dark, stinking animal sheds under many of the houses that these were the kind of conditions where Jesus was born. Forget the clean straw and smiling faces that you see in the Christmas cards and nativity plays. His birth must have been dirty, frightening, dark and humiliating, captured well in the song by Tim Hughes:

King of all days, Oh so highly exalted, Glorious in heaven above
Humbly you came, To the earth you created, All for love's sake became poor

Evie has been suffering with a really nasty stomach bug, but is fortunately now almost fully mended. She is normally so healthy and full of energy it was horrible watching her suffer and not really being able to do anything to help. It is great to have her back – thanks for many of your prayers.