Merry Christmas! I hope everyone had the best time celebrating and enjoying the season with their families.
For me, Christmas looked a lot different than it ever has before. Typically, I’ll shoot mistletoe out of the trees with my family. We go hiking! I wake up early and open presents with my brothers!
Here in Thailand, we got Christmas Eve and Christmas off from ministry, which left a lot of room for celebration! Woo! Happy birthday Jesus!!!!! On Christmas Eve, we went ice skating at one the big malls in the city!
Then on Christmas, I facetimed into my family’s Christmas Eve and got to watch my brother’s open their presents! I am so thankful for wifi and technology because it has been so sweet getting to talk to them so often! Ugh I love them.
Later that morning, we exchanged gifts within our teams and took our Christmas pictures!
Then we got brunch at an American styled diner down the street. And then we went back again for dinner. We ate all the American food we could get!
Honestly though, I’ve been pretty homesick lately, really since Thanksgiving. I’ve never been someone who just LOVED being home- I always loved traveling, never got homesick. But that’s been very different after being away for about 4 months. The past week as been extremely hard, if I’m being honest.
So last night, on Christmas night, we stood in our living room and worshipped our hearts out.
One song sang:
“There’s no place I’d rather be than here in Your love, here in Your love”
Those lines were so hard to sing. HARD to sing because I really missed home. I missed my brothers. I missed my family. I missed waking up early to open Santa presents. I missed home-cooked food. I missed feeling comfortable. I miss my friends.
But I sang these lyrics with every bit of me that I could, because if THIS is where God’s love is then there really is no place I’d rather be, no matter how much I miss home. As hard as some days can be, I know that this is exactly where God wants me to be and that’s enough. That’s enough.
merry christmas everyone!
– haven
