For those of you that may think that the mission field can't possibly have as much Christmas chaos as what you're experiencing....you just may be wrong.
Let's see there's gifts to buy and wrap for 80 children, stockings to stuff, 7 Christmas trees to be put up, decorations to be hand made, trees and houses to be decorated, Christmas pageant to be prepared and rehearsed, children's hand bell choir to be organized and rehearsed, gifts to be purchased and wrapped for the kids in Oasis, teams to host just before and right after Christmas, various Christmas parties to throw and attend for the kids and staff, and 350 sponsor Christmas cards to be written, translated, decorated, folded and placed in an envelope that needs to be addressed, sealed, and stamped to various parts of the world. Yes, there's plenty to be done here too.
But I've also got to admit to you, that this year this ministry has been truly blessed by excellent teams that have come intentionally to help with Christmas. Robin, from Maryland, was a missionary here when I came to check out this place last December. Robin finished her service and returned home last Feb. Except for my 12 day visit, Robin had everything to do on her own, and she vowed she would return this year and bring lots of nice gifts for the kids. I knew her intentions were good, but to be honest I didn't really expect her to come back. But sure enough, she and two really helpful young women came and made a huge impact. They bought a lot of gifts with them, and then went out and purchased shoes and other items for every kid here. By the time they left, they had prepared individual plastic sacks of gifts for each kid (usually a pair of pants/shirt or skirt/dress, socks, underwear, shoes, and a small toy or two). They did an outstanding job. Of course we missionaries helped out, but by in large they took on this Christmas project head on. Shortly after Robin's team left, a college aged gal from upstate New York came for 1.5 weeks to volunteer. She wrapped just about every kid's gift. Now there's a team here from Florida. They bought and wrapped gifts for the Oasis kids. They were assigned stocking stuffing duties. Oh, they (and Robin's team) also made hand crafts for the Christmas trees too. And a team from Texas is coming on Dec 27th for 2 weeks. I'm sure they'll be helping to take down all the decorations. So, all in all, we missionaries have been really blessed by support this Christmas. To be honest, I think God knew that we were going to have out hands, minds, and hearts filled with other stuff going on and He knew that we would not be able to sufficiently take care of Christmas w/o help. I think God hand chose certain people and teams to come help us out. Isn't it just like God to provide all we need, especially at Christmas?
My special Christmas assignment has been to get the kids to all write and decorate Christmas messages to their sponsors, then translate them, and get them mailed out. I was far from the being in a Christmas mood when I started this project in mid November in this tropical climate. I put on some Christmas music (including my all time favorite Charlie Brown Christmas CD) and invited a few girls to my house to help with the work. We worked and laughed and enjoyed sharing our lives with each other. I didn't put up a tree, but did put a red bow on my front door. And not too long ago I found myself feeling a bit "Christmasy". I'm currently re-reading the Christmas story in the Bible, and even trying my Spanish Bible. And like every year, I'm again struck by the true meaning of Christmas as I envision God's gift of His son. But this year, my vision has increased to thinking about how this gift is experienced by people who live on dirt floors, or by kids that don't have a traditional style family, and by watching people around me who are giving so selflessly because they received this gift.
Wherever you are and however you celebrate Christmas, I thank you for being a part of my Christmas.
(The picture is of me and some of the kids in front of the Christmas tree in the dining room . )
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