Christmas Decorations from 11:30am -2:00pm
This is what the ministry schedule read for Wednesday, December 19. As we walked downstairs to meet our contact for ministry, little did we know that 12 hours later we would finally be making it home.
You’re told at training camp not to have any expectations on the World Race…for anything. And six months into this journey, we have learned not to even bank on what a piece of paper or ministry schedule says. So while this story is pretty ridiculous, it is also pretty normal, at least for the Race.
Chip, Tyler, Michael, and I were pretty excited to spend the afternoon decorating a church for their Christmas program. We were ready to hang some lights, put ornaments on a tree, and put together the wooden reindeer while listening to some Christmas tunes. Around 12:00pm our contact, Phat (yes, that is his name), arrived at the hotel to pick us up. After parking his moto, we made our way to the bus stop about a quarter of a mile away from the hotel. Once we got on the bus, we received some information that changed things quite bit.
Not only would we be decorating the church, but in 6 hours we would also be participating in the Christmas program through song and story. Oh and the church we are decorating? Yeah, it’s an hour and a half away. Well..nothing we can do about that. As the bus pulls out of the parking lot, I recite “no expectations, no expectations” over and over in my mind.
Once we grabbed some lunch from a street vendor and stopped at a fruit stand for some delicious mangosteen (my favorite fruit in Asia), we made it to the church at 2:00pm…the time ministry was supposed to be ending. Welcome to the World Race.
Phat starts bringing out boxes and bags of random Christmas decorations and tells us to decorate however we think is best. I start to take apart the fake Christmas tree when 4 roaches and several beetles fall out. While this is a little startling, it’s really no big deal after 6 months on the field. But when I spotted a centipede (fyi they’re poisonous) only a few inches away from my hand as I pulled down a branch, the screams began. After repositioning my hand and shaking the tree as hard as I could, the centipede finally fell to the ground and was quickly greeted by the bottom of a Chaco.
My squadmate, Aubree, and I started hanging ornaments from the ceiling, while the boys positioned white tree branches around the room, decorating them with snow (cotton). Chip decorated the tree in the corner, spending a lot of time finding the perfect balance of garland, lights, ornaments, and presents. Tree decoration really is a science.
And then it happened. The Christmas Decoration Coordinator shows up along with her team of other decorators.
Phat told us he didn’t know this position even existed or that she had a very specific plan as to how she wanted the room to be decorated. Needless to say, everything we had worked on the first hour and a half was redone, moved, or removed. We were just laughing and trying to help out however we could with the second round of decorating. But when they moved the Christmas tree Chip had been working on for so long and almost ALL of the decorations fell off, things got personal (not really, but I like the dramatic ending to that sentence). Needless to say, once all the final decorations were put in place, not ONE of our decorations remained. Sigh.
Sooner than later we found ourselves sitting around with several hours before the Christmas program began. We spent time practicing “O Come All Ye Faithful” and Tyler wrote down his story that he would share that evening. Around 5:00pm we were supposed to meet with the leader of the evening activities to give us a run-down of the schedule including our role. 5:25pm and he had yet to show up. We make our way into town for dinner and then head back around 6:00 with the program starting at 6:30.
Finally at 7:00 the program began and we still hadn’t talked with anyone about the schedule. Then Tyler asked Phat if they could practice sharing and translating beforehand and gets this response:
“Sure, it should only be about 5 minutes long…well actually 3 minutes…well really I don’t think we will have time for you to share.”
Alrighty then. Here we are, 6 World Racers, 7.5 hours into ministry and all we had done was put up Christmas decorations that were later moved, prepared a testimony that was no longer being shared, and practiced for a Christmas carol for 15 minutes.
Phat tells us that after the program there would be a “feast” and then we would head home around 8:30pm. Well 8:30 comes and goes, with the program is still continuing. We sang Christmas songs, watched numerous skits and dance numbers, but had yet to sing. Around this time the pastor begins to preach for the next 40 minutes. After the sermon, they have an open invitation for anyone who wants to accept Jesus and 5 guys come forward! This of course was the best part of the night, seeing men become Christians in a closed country.
“Okay well thank you for coming. We will now have some food and drink, so please enjoy.”
Those words were uttered and we all looked back and forth at each other in silence, with the exact same thought in mind. No “O Come All Ye Faithful”. Six hours of waiting and preparation and no participation. Haha. No remaining decorations, no story shared, and no song performed. Welcome to the World Race.
We “feasted” for thirty minutes before heading home around 10.:00pm We grabbed a taxi since the buses were no longer running. This was definitely a blessing since it made the ride back much shorter and comfier. Right around 11:00pm we arrived back home, still laughing about the day’s events.
What can I say? Just a day in the life on the World Race.
