The day after Christmas, my team had the opportunity to visit refugee families in Kathmandu. We visited families from Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and Pakistan. Each house we went to provided us with food, tea, coffee, and music. It was a small world tour in a day. We talked with these families and heard their stories. Then we sang Christmas carols. Lastly, we prayed with the families and gave small presents to the children. All day I carried the small presents for the children in a large stocking, we had left over from Christmas.
Not surprisingly, our team stuck out a bit in the refugee community, so we ended up going to a few more houses than we had originally planned upon. By the time we reached our last house, our stocking was emptied and we had no more gifts to give the children. This is when a Christmas miracle occurred. You see, it is easy for those of us on the World Race to believe we possess very little, especially considering we live out of a backpack. But in truth, we actually have so much. So out of our plenty, my team gave up their own possessions. While the Pakistani family shared their stories, the ladies of Nahala discretely searched through their backpacks. We took out candies we had especially saved and oranges we hoarded. We sacrificed crayons and trinkets that we savored. We passed around our humble Christmas stocking and slowly but surely we filled it to its brim.
When we gave the filled stocking to the Pakistani family, it was not with a resentful heart. It was such a blessing for us to be able to give. We all wished we could have given more. Now I implore you, dear reader, to evaluate your life. Especially as the Christmas season closes, look at the ways that you can give to those less fortunate. This might be providing a warm meal for a family down the street from you or it could mean making a donation to a non-profit organization. It could even mean, simply spending the time to truly ask someone how they are doing and then waiting to hear the answer.
Be a blessing and feel blessed!
