Coaching at RashidatO.com | Social Activism at Whereveryougolove.com
IG: @RashidatO_ FB: @WhereverYouGoLove.com
Ma Raj, our ministry host’s mother, asked me a question about caroling. I can’t remember what exactly she wanted to know, but I do remember sheepishly telling her that I have never been Christmas caroling before.
I remember having some Christmas traditions as a child, but in my family, the Christmas holiday mainly surrounded activities for the children. As an adult, and since I have rededicated my life to Christ, I have yet to make of my own traditions that take the time out to glorify Christ in this season. It was convicting to realize it had never even crossed my mind really. While I do not believe in buying into the commercialization of Christmas, I do see it as a huge opportunity to extravagantly show the love of Christ. I mean it is His birthday… How does it make sense to celebrate His birthday without doing something for Him?
As time passed and we started to practice the Christmas carols that we’d sing at every house and I was amazed to see such a high level of excitement for the task at hand. Throughout conversations on the team, we found that most of us, 5 out of the 6 of us, have never done Christmas caroling. It has not been one of the traditions that have been passed down in our American culture. I shared this with Ma Raj. She was amazed that going Christmas caroling was foreign to us. She assumed that all Christians did this all around the world. She had done it so long she couldn’t imagine her Christmas season without it. In Malaysia, Christmas Carolling was one of the best, and maybe even the most pivotal, way to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I was not excited about going to sing Christmas carols from house to house, but with every rehearsal, I fed off the excitement of the friends and families of the church that would go out with us. We did some intense caroling for 3 days in a row ending at 11:30 pm the first night, 1:30 and the next time, and 3 am on the last time out. And the best part… I had a blast; better than I ever could have imagined!
Here is a video from my teammate Andy Haak that shows the first night of this part of our ministry.
I haven’t had Christmas traditions as an adult, but I have one now. Think about it… maybe it should be a tradition that you could do with some friends next year.
I hope you had a great holiday!
