Christmas is a very special time of year. It’s full of love and joy. It’s a season of giving. It’s snowy and cold. It’s full of traditions and fun. Christmas is a season I always look forward to. My mom makes her homemade chex mix and bubble bread. My family and I put up the tree and listen to Christmas music. We eat candy canes and buy gifts. It’s a beautiful time of year.
This year was different. This year wasn’t my usual Christmas. This year was a whole new experience entirely. I didn’t wake up Christmas morning to bubble bread, a cup of coffee, and gifts to open. This Christmas was 90 degrees – hot, humid, and sunny. This year, I woke up just like any other day of ministry in Rwanda. I woke up an hour before my team to have my usual quiet time. Then we all ate our normal Rwandan breakfast, and we went to our normal Sunday morning church service. We preached at our two churches, just like normal. In spite of all the normality, this Christmas was anything but normal.
Let me just tell you about what I did this Christmas.
Christmas really started several days before Christmas day. I was sitting in a coffee shop in the city just relaxing when I got a call on my team phone.
“Hey Santa!” I heard Maddy’s voice say over the phone.
“This is actually happening?” I mumbled in response.
That morning Maddy had joked about how my Santa impression was. She had the idea that I could play Santa over the phone for our hosts kids. I thought it was a joke.
“Haha yeah Santa!” she laughed back at me, and then she handed the phone off to the kids. I proceeded act Santa with the best voice I could. The conversation was full of “Ho Ho Ho” and “What do you want for Christmas little boy?” I’ve never felt so ridiculous in all my life. The kids asked for all sorts of stuff from cookies and chocolate to clothes and shoes.
After that, we of course had to make something happened. On Christmas Eve, Maddy and I bought the kids some chocolates, cookies, headbands for the girls, and toy cars for the boys. Not only that, but my team and I also withdrew the two thousand dollars that we raised for our host, Pastor Moses, to buy electricity for his church and plumbing for his home.
Sunday night on Christmas, after we all came home from calling family at Wi-Fi (which was wonderful by the way. Talking to my family was so nice), we delivered the gifts “from Santa.” The kids were so excited. When they saw the money that we gave to their dad, they all started screaming. It was so awesome to bless this family. It was a gift in itself to see the joy that it brought them.
Once we’d delivered those gifts, we went back to our rooms to do our own team Christmas. We did a Secret Santa among our team. We all bought each other gifts, nobody knew who the others were buying for (at least we weren’t supposed to know, but I figured them all out and knew everyone’s Secret Santa). I bought for David a journal because he doesn’t have one. I have two of my own and have found them to be wonderful items to have on the race, so I bought David one of his own. I also bought him a can of Pringles, which is funny because if you didn’t know, the man has eaten probably sixty cans of Pringles at least since the start of the race. I was given a huge peanut butter chocolate bar from Josiah that was absolutely delicious. I devoured it, but I wish I hadn’t eaten it so quickly. I’d love to still be munching on it right now. We had so much fun exchanging gifts.
Christmas this year was amazing. I certainly missed my usual Christmas with my family, but this Christmas is one that I’ll never forget. It was anything but normal, and I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything.
