Christmas this year was maybe the craziest of the three I’ve spent here.  This is always the season that is most focused on outreach, but this year it felt like the scale was way ramped up.  Around 30 of my neighbors piled into two cars and a pickup truck to attend our combined Christmas party, held for members of the 6 slum and low-income communities we work in.  The very next day we had our house full of children and then adults, for Christmas songs, stories, crafts and lots of great food.  It was a lot of work, a little bit of chaos, definitely things that could have gone better, but so many people in my slum heard about Jesus and had a great time.  It was exhausting but very rewarding.

From the combined party:

What can I say, my neighbors know how to party!

These are from the party we hosted THE NEXT DAY (did I mention I was exhausted afterwards?) in our house, for just about all 400+ members of our community.

(Above) Even though we had planned and prepared this outreach as a mission team, women from the community showed up and immediately started helping– leading the games, keeping the kids attentive, serving food, cleaning up.  It’s exciting to see how our organizing efforts have really instilled a value for cooperation and community ownership of whatever activies are going on within the slum.

Christy leading (in Thai!) the story of how the candy cane came about, inspired by Jesus’s life and sacrifice.

After the story the kids broke into groups to decorate their own candy canes.

A woman in the community who runs a small restaurant for a living made all the food for us– we just paid her for the ingredients and she volunteered her whole day to make some amazing dishes.  After serving the kids fried rice and sending them home with some small Christmas gifts, the adults streamed in for the feast.  This was a great strategy (which some of the Thai leaders helped enforce) for getting to spend time with some of the adults who stuck around longer, without needing to entertain swarms of kids.

The group of us who hung out longer, sang a few Christmas carols and talked about the meaning of Christmas.  Myself, team leader Kevin, teammate Resty and his two Filipino visitors are in the shot, along with five of my neighbors.

]]> http://sarainbangkok.net/2009/01/19/finally-a-post-about-christmas/feed/ 1 http://sarainbangkok.net/2008/12/18/tistheseason/ http://sarainbangkok.net/2008/12/18/tistheseason/#comments Thu, 18 Dec 2008 09:04:12 +0000 Sara http://sarainbangkok.net/?p=138 Just to give you a sense of the Christmas-related things I’ve been a part of and others that are coming up:

Dec. 13  Christmas party in my teammates’ slum of Samaki Pattana for their neighbors /slash/  party for Lydia Award winner (through our microenterprise development program)

Dec. 16  cookie decorating with the team

Dec. 17  leader’s training /slash/ Christmas celebration

Dec. 20  combined Christmas party for members of all the slums we are reaching out to

Dec. 21  Christmas party in my slum of Phothong (3 p.m. activities for the kids, 4:30 meal and sharing of the Christmas story with adults)

Dec. 23 – 27  vacation and Christmas festivities with the team

But somehow I was able to get all my cards and presents sent out on time!

Please be praying especially for the parties this weekend, as many will hear the Christmas story for the first time, and if it is like previous years, will also choose to follow Jesus.  Would people be captivated by this Savior-King who came as fragile child, whose birth was announced first to the poorest of that society, who came not for the healthy but the sick.  Would he be born among the poor and humble of Bangkok this year, would those in darkness see his great light.

Waiting…

Especially in fast-paced, efficiency-oriented Western culture, that word seems to have a negative connotation.  For me I think of idleness, listening to the clock ticking away seconds and minutes, an uncomfortable in-between stage.  It’s an unpleasant time to just make it through in order to get to the anticipated end.

But James’ illustration of the farmer paints a different picture (James 5:7-8).  He is anything but idle, continuing to work the ground as he waits.  It is a picture of partnership between him and God, who provides the “autumn and spring rains” and is author of the mystery that turns a small, hidden seed into life-giving, “precious crop”.

It is a picture of faith that this labor is not in vain, though the process lies hidden beneath the soil for so much of the year.

It is a picture of perseverance, as James tells us to “be patient and stand firm”, even in the face of suffering (v. 10).

It is a picture of anticipation, as the farmer knows that something good is coming, a reason to celebrate.

For me, as I look toward Christmas, it is a reminder that waiting for Christ and his Kingdom to come here in Bangkok is a joyful and active thing.  While I often focus on what is not yet or what is needed, I can forget that there are seeds germinating in the soil even now.  When my work feels fruitless, this is a challenge to trust God with the seeds I have planted.

Here in Bangkok, few people know the King of Kings, but they are highly devoted to their earthly king.  The King of Thailand will celebrate his 80^th birthday this December, and Thais have been doing many things to anticipate the event.  From wearing yellow every Monday, to an upsurge in charity and environmental work to honor their king, it is clearly on the forefront on everyone’s minds.

As I anticipate Christmas, this is a challenge to me.  If this is how Thais honor a man who has served them well, how much more should we honor our King and Savior as we await his coming birthday!  Would our continued planting of seeds of the Kingdom around us be a way to anticipate our Lord’s birthday and future coming.