New Years is coming, the year is getting fat

I know we haven't gotten to Christmas yet and this is like starting to have Christmas decorations up in October before Halloween (I'm looking at you Wal-Mart) but this is for good reason. We are doing the "New Years Around the World" event at church and there is a lot of preparation that needs to take place. We need to have a snack from each place, a craft, a missionary and missionary story, and some history of the country.

Well, our countries are, in order of time it turns midnight:
We start at 10:00 making decorations for India when it turns 10:30
10:30 India
12:00 Udmurtia, Russia
1:00 Iraq
2:00 Macedonia

In the 2 hrs we have for India, we need to cook lunch as well as eat it and do the craft and missionary story. I do need to get in contact with a missionary there.

For Russia, I am in contact with a missionary there by e-mail. I also am following his blog (although he is transferring my request to his partner.) He has a very interesting blog. It's amazing what you can find on blogger with google.

In Iraq, one of my former chaplains, Chaplain Bartz (who I credit as one of the most influential people in my life (I wrote an essay for a scholarship in school that listed my two most influential people in my life -- my dad was first and Chaplain Bartz was second)) has pulled some strings for me and got an e-mail from me to a Southern Baptist chaplain in Iraq. So we are starting communications.

In Macedonia, I found a contact through the Russian missionary. She has an interesting blog too. Our only problem with Macedonia is that it is actually 3 pm here when it's midnight there, but it is because they went with central Europe instead of Greece. It is right above Greece though, so I am going to fudge it over so we start at 2:00 pm and when we leave at 3, we will celebrate Macedonian New Year.

So now, I need to start trying to get in contact with someone currently working in India. We were looking at some Indian food sites -- this may be interesting. The most interesting part will be coming up with the funds to buy all this stuff. We may charge a small fee to cover the cost -- maybe $5. For lunch, snacks, crafts and 5 hours, that's a pretty good deal. I am going to have to really have a really tight budget though.

I am looking forward to this.