So what are you doing this Christmas?

Here's what my parents are up to...

Dear Friends and Partners in Ministry,

I’m up with the sun (4:30!) to get ready for two of the busiest days of our year. At 9:30, we take Christmas gifts to all the children and adults at our Noviane community. The kids will begin with some singing they’ve prepared and one of the girls will read the Christmas story from Luke 2 in Portuguese. Most of their gifts are actually clothes and practical things they need anyway, but they’ve all been very excited in anticipation of this special occasion. We have four new kids living with us there who have arrived fairly recently. Three are from very poor backgrounds and the fourth from a background of violent abuse. For the poor ones, receiving gifts and receiving something new will be firsts. They don’t even have a grid for anticipating this experience. It humbles me when I think about their lives—and the lives of so many others trapped in the depths of poverty—in our world of such abundance.

Then at 1:30 we go to Mieze to give gift bags to all the Mieze kids. I’ll miss being at the children’s evangelistic program there this morning (in order to be at Noviane), but I’ve already taken hundreds of small bags of chips and suckers and other candy out for distribution to the 3-400 kids who will come to hear about the birth of Jesus...and to receive a plate of beans and rice. Several of these kids were telling me yesterday they were hungry and there was no food at home. I was able to give some money to some. We’re doing what we can to help and thankfully they’re no longer starving. Tomorrow, I’ll be speaking in the Mieze church. Then, after church we’ll feed a full chicken dinner to over a thousand. That will be the Father’s Christmas gift to his faithful church.

We’ll finish today with Iris’ traditional candlelight service for our Pemba kids. However, it’s not exactly “Silent Night, Holy Night” as it quickly degenerates into a candle-fight service. The object becomes to blow out others’ candles while protecting your own. Teams form spontaneously as they try to keep at least one candle burning to re-light the others’ while they attack other teams’ candles. Don’t try this at home!

Tomorrow, after church the Pemba Base will also feed a Christmas chicken meal to 4,000 while we’re feeding a thousand or more in Mieze. Then, if we have any energy left, there’ll be an informal Christmas party for missionaries in the evening.

This out-pouring of love and goodness to the least of these in Jesus’ name is only possible because you care. Thank you for all your prayers and generosity throughout 2011 which are bringing hundreds, young and old, into the Kingdom Jesus came to reveal (Luke 4:43).

With our love and appreciation,

Don and Elizabeth