Merry Christmas
Suk San Wan Kis Sa Mas
I do hope that everyone is having sweet fellowship with family and friends.
Our Christmas Eve was the first day off we have really had since Thanksgiving, so we enjoyed it thoroughly. We delivered cookies to some of our friends around town. Melody and I made homemade pizza for our Christmas Eve meal, grabbed our hymnals and went caroling to some beautiful friends of ours here in town, ended the night watching "Meet Me in St. Louis", and before bed we spent some time on skype chattin with the fam.
For Christmas Day we woke up and the 3 of us roomies exchanged our gifts and I made french toast. We got all dressed up in our Asian attire and headed to a service held here in town. One of my favorite things about living here is watching locals get excited about worshiping our Father. So much joy in the fact that our Savior chose to save us in this way. In the form of a baby boy, born into our mess to save us from our sin and rebellion.
Being away from home/America during this time has of course been difficult in many ways. I miss my beautiful family and my hilarious friends so very much. But it has been helpful in many ways to really view this holiday for what it is instead of what American culture has made it out to be. The locals here have no idea what Christmas in America looks like. They have no idea of our traditions and customs, so being included in their own Christmas traditions and customs has been such a blessing to my heart this season. They celebrate all month long and this week you can find a celebration/service every evening and every morning. They truly just want to worship Father and use this time (that officials have allowed them to have) to celebrate in multitudes the miraculous birth of our Savior.
This video was taken at a local Christmas celebration on the 23rd. In my eyes its the closest thing to a children's choir you can get here. This celebration was such a beautiful picture of the body coming together to truly prepare their hearts for the birth of Christ and what this holiday truly means. These kids were absolutely adorable performing their "faoun" or dance, and I just had to share with y'all. The little guy in the middle is obviously the center of attention....
The lyrics to many hymns have been in my head for awhile now (mainly because we have sung them throughout the house and on road trips since Thanksgiving), but the words have never meant so much to me as they have this Christmas. I leave you with a few of my favorite verses to 3 of my favorite Christmas Hymns.
O holy child of Bethlehem! Descend to us we pray; cast out our sin, and enter in, be born in us today! We hear the Christmas angels, the great glad tidings tell; O come to us, abide with us, Our Lord Immanuel!
Come to Bethlehem, and see Him whose birth the angels sing; Come, adore on bended knee Christ the Lord, the newborn KING.
Silent night, holy night, Son of God, Love's pure light. Radiant beams from thy holy face, with the dawn of redeeming grace.
JESUS, LORD AT THY BIRTH!
"For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given"
Isaiah 9:6
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