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.