Christmas Eve was a little over-eventful. We needed to take two people to the clinic, so we planned to leave at 7:30am. It was the blind man in the community, Aung Moe, and the little five-year-old with the dog bite—he was behind on his vaccinations and needed one that is only offered on Thursdays. We made it by 8 with hopes of being home by 9 for Flour & Flower deliveries.
These were high hopes indeed. Stephen went back with the little boy at 9 to load up the car, while I stayed with Aung Moe. Stephen arrived home to have people running up to him everywhere, and he was brought a little two-year-old girl who’d had hot oil spilled on her. She had boils covering her.
Thus Stephen came back to the clinic to pick us up and drop her off, getting us home to beginning Flour & Flower deliveries about an hour behind schedule. We still managed to get 11 pans of rolls, 17 loaves of bread, 11 bouquets of flowers, & plenty of Christmas cheer delivered around town.
We squeezed in lunch and little more present wrapping before it was time for our weekly house church. We started this many weeks ago, and just recently realized it was going to work out just perfectly with Christmas! We have gone through a selection of Old Testament stories, shared the Christmas story, and then will continue through Jesus’ life until Easter.
We gathered the kids first for a little craft Laura had put together. Kelvin & Laura had cut out a huge cardboard Christmas tree and painted it green. The kids each got ornaments to cut out, color, and paste to the tree. It was a hit, and turned out so cute!
We also had high school students from a nearby children’s home helping us with the craft and the bible story. We had speakers set up outside so that the Christmas story translation could be loud—loud enough to cover the chatter and perhaps even make it across the street for the adults that might be too shy to come.
The students helped us pull of an entire skit, complete with Laura & Kelvin as Mary & Joseph, a little baby from the community as Jesus, two shepherds, four sheep, two angels, and two wisemen. This, too, was such a hit and went better than we could have imagined.
At the end, Stephen asked everyone who believed that Jesus was born and was God. So many of the kids raised their hands, and we just rejoiced. Stephen told me later he had the verse in mind from Romans—“if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved”—and wanted to give them the opportunity to confess. Really, we have no idea what God is doing here and how he is using our lives, our home, our stories. But we can love them and pray for them, we will gladly tell them the Christmas story year after year!
After a snack of chocolate soy milk & cookies with the community, we headed back to wrapping presents, only to pop out for a takeaway pizza for dinner.
Also in the midst of the evening, I received one of the sweetest gifts yet from the community. Pyo Pyo brought me these two beautiful pairs of earrings!
It was so sweet to see her observe what I would like and then do such a great job choosing a sweet present. They will be cherished for a long time.
Also, a Christmas miracle: for the first time since we have arrived back, we received water from the city on Christmas Eve!
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