Today I want to fill you all in on what Christmas will look like for us this year in Indonesia.
Thankfully we live in an area where Christianity is not discriminated against and as a matter of fact several of our Indoneisan neighbors are also Christians! We have already put a tree up so it can be seen from our front window and there are small touches around the house to make it look like Christmas. We even turn the air conditioner up at night in our family room to similate what it feels like back home!! I had socks on last night for the first time here!
This past weekend I had the joy of planning a ladies retreat for Christmas. It was a nice time for all of us here who are either in language study or helping us newbies settle in and adjust to life in Indonesia.
We have three more days of class before we finish Unit 6 of language and then the real activities begin! Friday night we are hosting an open house at our home for all of our neighbors. They have all been asking if we will be having something like this around Christmas so they can see our traditions! Our Canadian friends, the Whatley’s who live down the street will join in making the goodies and help us greet all 200 guests as they come to our home! Thursday and Friday will be busy days for us as we bake lots of goodies for our neighbors to try! It’s been interesting to figure out what to serve as they don’t like food that is too sweet! Being that we eat almost all sweet foods at parties at Christmas, we have had to be creative. We want them to be able to try what we eat but don’t want to grose them out either! Pray for opportunities to share with them about the true meaning of Christmas.
Sunday, Christmas Eve we have tried our best to continue our Christmas traditions from back home. Joel will be creating a special dinner for our family and then we will be doing a Christmas Eve service of sorts for all our NTM family here. It will be at someone elses house but we are organizing it as part of the worship team here. We’ll sing Christmas songs, read the Christmas story and then have a time of fellowship together with Christmas goodies. Then we’ll all go to our own homes and have time as individual families to carry out our own Christmas Eve traditions. For us that means exchanging one gift! We always get one another pajamas to exchange on Christmas Eve so that we have nice pj’s on in our Christmas morning pictures. This year, I had a hard time finding any for Joel as the concept of pajama bottoms for men seems to be a foreign concept. I may have to have some made from what he already has – thankfully that’s very cheap to do here!
Christmas morning we’ll let Jack be our alarm clock and then eat a nice breakfast together and open gifts. This will be the year Jack begins to really enjoy Christmas. It will be fun to watch him open gifts and we will begin to share with him about the One Gift that really matters! He has a Little People nativity set and already carries around the baby Jesus saying his name over and over!!
I have found fun things to fill in decorating around the house. Much of our Christmas deco is still in the states but we are feeling very much like it’s Christmas! We’ll make many phone calls on Christmas evening as our families back home will be just waking up to Christmas morning. This is our first time away from our family for Christmas and my first time out of the US for Christmas. I expect there to be a bit of tears as we will be missing our families and friends much. Enjoy your family this year more than before. They are also a special gift from God!
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2 comments:
it sounds like it will be a good christmas there in indonesia for you all - i know you will miss family but it will be special to spend christmas with the ones near you as well. i was looking at pictures today of last missouri "christmas" and had lots of fun memories come to mind. I am glad i had the chance to spend that time with you all. i am looking forward to having jon and bekah here for christmas this year - i think it will be good. i have some fun surprises for them too. Hope that you have a marvelous Christmas celebrating our Saviors birth ! Christine
We are thinking of you all the time these days. Can't wait to hear how the special time with neighbors went. 200 is a lot of people and goodies to prepare for. In Guyana, they don't like a lot of sweet things either. We will take around some cake or pumpkin bread and little goodie bags for the kids in the neighborhood.
Hugs and kisses,
Mom
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