Happy Christmas Eve!

It’s Christmas Eve and I am sitting here reflecting on the season that is before us.

I have enjoyed the Holiday season but it has been very different this year. I have experienced a bit of homesickness but have also had lots of fun trying to recreate a special Christmas feel in the middle of a very HOT season. You know, having scorching hot weather makes it pretty hard to feel like it is Christmas! We have been playing Christmas music, been carol singing, had a staff party, decorated our own tree and done some Christmas baking. I do however find myself reflecting on what all my friends and family will be getting up to at home; missing the family traditions, the cold and Christmassy feel that naturally comes with the icy weather, Christmas parties, spending time with friends, having candle lit carol services and all the yummy delights that come out at Christmas, like brandy snaps and Christmas pudding! I then naturally think about all the stress and work that everyone at home must be under with the shopping, buying, cooking, wrapping and manic rushing that comes with this time of year!!! This has made me realise how much of Christmas is overtaken with the expectation from the consumerism side that money must be spent and that everthing must be perfect – what a distraction we have in the west with 3 months of adverts and shops playing music ‘demanding’ that we buy gifts and that Christmas be ‘made’ special. 

This year I have been able to enjoy the Christmas season without any hype and have truly discovered how special it is. We do not need to make it anything – it’s all there in front of us ready to be enjoyed;

Matthew 1 v 23 says; “The Virgin will be with Child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” which means, “God with us.”

I have had a real chance to remember the real meaning of Christmas and to truly think and reflect on the fact that Christ was born and came to be with us so that we could be saved.

My Christmas is going to be different and certainly one to remember this year, being able to celebrate it in Africa. It’s good to remember that God is always trying to communicate with us, to show himself to us in our everyday’s. I am grateful that I am in a place of quiet and calm where miracles are seen daily amongst the most adorable people, who have such huge faith in such difficult circumstances. During the holiday season it sometimes seems harder to hear the message that God is with us due to all the extra volume that surrounds us. This Christmas I wish you a joyous time filled with moments when you can reflect on the true season. I pray that your Christmas does not deteriorate into a buzz of jingling bells and frazzled days, one's that are full of decorations, deadlines and dashing! 
If God is with us, then God is with you. If God is with you, then there is no reason to fear or doubt anything. I’m thankful and blessed that I have had God with me every step of my last 5 months here. In all the fun and tough times I have had I have not been alone. I'm happy to be experiencing an African Christmas this year and am grateful for the best gift I have ever received - that of Jesus Christ.