Dear Friends. I know it is late to be doing so, but I just wanted to send you some photos from December last year. We had a fantastic wrap up to the year, so I just wanted to share these photos with you.

As you can see from this group photo, my mum and stepdad came to visit me at the beginning of December. They really enjoyed meeting my boys, and spent a lot of time getting to know them.

We took the boys to the cinema and then to a video arcade as a Christmas party, where they enjoyed some bumper cars.




We also had a fun end-of-year dress up party.

































I had a week off work, and we enjoyed a few days in Medellin, and relaxed for a weekend at a Thermal Spring getaway.

So Christmas Day was fantastic. A few days before Christmas my boys from La Granja went to stay with either extended relatives or foster families, so I enjoyed my Christmas with the kids in Mundo Nuevo. We started the day with a trip to Cartago, to share some Christmas cheer with the same refuge we visited 2 years ago. It is a refuge for around 300 homeless people, ranging from children to the dying. It is probably the saddest place I have visited in my life, so playing a concert to its residents, and bringing some life to the place, was a very special gift from the children of Mundo Nuevo.

We made Spagheti for the residents (well, my family did...I slept through most of that), so they enjoyed Christmas lunch as the children played a concert.

A few days before Christmas we set about the large task of making Christmas packages for 200 children in Mundo Nuevo. Camp Carolina families helped me with clothes, Lucy sent me some money to buy balls, and we were able to make Christmas that much more special for some deserving children by giving them each a bag of presents. The photo above is of the nuns packing up the packages. I'd like to especially acknowlege Jacqui Huggett, whom for the past 3 years has sent me 2 HUGE suitcases of either used or new clothes (the used ones in as good condition as the new). Below is a photo of the boys looking pretty snazzy in their new clothes on Christmas day. In words I cant describe what a difference you all made to us that day, I can only imagine how plain Christmas would have been without all of your generosity.

We wrapped up the night with a concert given by the choir.

I felt blessed to share Christmas in the way I did this past year. Christmas became so much less about me, and so much more about the people around me. The example given by the band in Mundo Nuevo was very special for me. They have so little themselves, yet gave up some of their Christmas day to play a concert for some even less fortunate than them.

I pray you have a joyful 2010. Thankyou for your support over 2009.

Jon Howes.