Merry Christmas!

We had no idea how we were going to spend Christmas day. Christmas Eve was just about how we figured it would be, lots of loud music until after 1 am! I (Sharon) have not been sleeping well anyway so the music just kept me company as I stayed up late reading and thinking. The music started out in English with the old Christmas songs then changed to, I think, Arabic and tunes that I did not know. What I did understand was the joy and enthusiasm of the singers. Believe me, it was LOUD and joyful. As the people were leaving the church you could hear young men shouting "hallelujah" and women still singing.

There are two reasons for so much joy. Celebrating the birth of Christ and celebrating being alive and there being no fighting this Christmas! Talk about putting things in perspective.

We got a call about 7:20 wondering if we wanted to go to a Christmas day service. Not knowing this was a possibility I had just put a banana bread in the oven and it would not be ready in time so Lynn stayed home and I went with Leisa (mission co-worker). We left home about 8:30 and returned about 12:15! It was a wonderful service! We sat in an open tent and with the kids there were about 180 of us. The preacher preached in Arabic and it was translated into Anywaa with some English thrown in for us but Leisa said it was mainly for me. I love the start of the sermon time. The preacher (a woman) got up and started preaching and then stopped and called a young man up. She then explained that she knows English, Arabic and Anywaa and asked if they all knew Anywaa which they did not so she preached in Arabic and the man translated into Anywaa and she threw in English here and there so that Leisa and I could at least get the gist of the message. If the translator got it wrong then people shouted out the right translation!

At the end of the service the singing really started and then the jumping! The women went outside the tent and jumped in beat to the music - not high jumps but jumps of joy and enthusiasm! It brought a huge smile to my face but, no, I did not join them even though I kind of wanted to:) So much joy all around me! How humbling and focus changing.  It is not that they do not get gifts ( all the kids were in new clothes) it is that the focus is on Christ. I have so much to learn from the people here.

This has been a wonderful Christmas in spite of my worrying about being away from family. God continues to show me that if I just trust in Him, He will make things work out. Why, oh why do I (am I the only one?) have to learn things over and over again?:) 

I hope you all had a Christmas filled with as much joy around you as we did.