Merry Christmas from Cambodia!

 


   We are ready to welcome Christmas day.  Cookies, pies, presents, and stockings have all been prepped and are waiting for the big day. 

     We are in a place where most people have no clue what Christmas is really about.  Does that make it harder to focus on the Christ child or easier?  For me, maybe both.  It is harder to find things that are Christmas themed.  No big Christmas sales for gift shopping.  The weather is far from wintery. 

     On the upside we don't have constant reminders of how many shopping days are left. We don't have to plow people over in line to get that one thing that we have to buy. 


     We have the privilege of celebrating and telling the story of Christ's birth with people who have never heard it before.  We don't have a lot of gifts to give them.  It's not going to be a big American Christmas.  But we will make sure they know about the humble stable and the shepherds who went to visit the baby that first night.  I hope we can show them that the excitement is about Emmanuel, God with us.

      We are glad to be here.  Happy that our family is together.  Some of our traditions will be easy to repeat here, others won't happen this year.  We are doing things differently, and trying to make sure that in both the old and in the new we remember the big event that we are celebrating.

    

Family

The reason the word family is first in my blog name is because I want to give my family first priority.  As a parent, I am given the job of making sure that my kids learn everything they need to know.  It is a big job, and it gets harder as they grow.  I sometimes think I am not doing enough to make sure they are learning the really important stuff but then God gives me something like what happened yesterday. 

I was in bed with a stomach, ummm, problem (not an uncommon part of life in this part of the world.)  Benjamin and Georgia came to say goodnight to me and we had this conversation:

Benjamin - Momma, is your tummy better?

Me - Not yet, but you can pray for me when you go to bed. 

Benjamin - I can pray for you right now!

And he did.  My five year old boy and his three year old sister held my hands and prayed for my tummy to feel better.  It was so sweet, and I was close to tears.  That is what I want my children to do.  That is what I want them to know; that they can go to God at anytime, not just the usual times.  I am so proud of my little guy and I pray that he keeps this knowledge as he grows.  My tummy isn't all the way better yet, but my heart is feeling great today.