Little did I realize how blessed I would be this Christmas.
It’s not every day I get to say that I spent my Christmas in Africa; but it was
even more than that.
Of course there were those moments of sitting back and
missing my family and our fun traditions so incredibly much (man alive did I
realize how much I have taken them for granted…my family is a HOOT around the
holidays…and amazing cooks!), but I was able to spend the holidays in a whole
new way.
*Unfortunately I cannot post pictures just yet because of
internet access, but I will paint you a picture*
It is rather hot in Malawi, so we all had been struggling to
have it feel like Christmas. Instead of dwelling on that, I decided to attempt
to spice up our room with some decorations. A colorful ‘Merry Christmas’ sign,
a string of linked chains, and a bunch of snowflakes later; our door was
decorated. After that I attempted to make a Christmas tree out of folding a
piece of paper a bunch of times like a Christmas tree accordion. With the scraps
from the snowflakes our tree was able to be surrounded by snow. I had blue play
doo (don’t ask how) so I was able to make a snowman with snow balls all around
it. WA LA! Christmas!!!
Melissa provided the Christmas tunes leading up until
Christmas, which made her my hero because I discovered I had NONE on my
itunes…shame. So thank you Melissa for saving the day, you are my hero!!
On Christmas eve we had an amazing fajita dinner thanks to
Alexandra (from team Haven’s) planning and making, along with Melissa, Crystal,
and a handful of others preparing. YUM! So good! That night we had a big white
elephant Christmas exchange where I won an apple…YES! My gift included a
tampon, baby powder, some candy, and floss…that’s world race for you. After the
presents were dispersed Blake and Daniel put on Christmas Vacation…a must watch
around the Christmas holidays (Hanna I thought of you :)!)
This morning we woke up to pancakes with chocolate melted on
them…YUM! We then went into the conference room and opened presents. We had
drawn names (just like my family does, but this version we drew two names), and
so we were all excited to receive our two gifts! I was slightly bummed after
the gifts were passed out because I had only received one. After clarifying the
presents were all out, a few seconds later I actually started giggling to
myself because of the irony. Last Christmas with my own family the person who
drew my name got mixed up and did not get me a gift either. I joked with people
after about being forgetful. Sara had my name and gave me two bags of my
recently favorite hard candies…SCORE! Sweets for Christmas, yessss! My last
blog I had just talked about dying to my pride. One of those things included
getting over yourself and not saying “Why me?”, because honestly, it’s not
about me, it’s about God. I maybe was frustrated for two minutes, but quickly
humbled myself. Plus, I was just so stoked to give out my gifts…that’s more fun
to me anyway. I decided to focus on the fact that I even received a gift for
Christmas, and that I even had the means to give anything to anyone at all. My
mood quickly changed as I saw each of my teammates with their corny stockings I
made them out of computer paper with the candy inside, and seeing my teammate
Melissa and one of the contacts little girls, Zenika, open their gifts. What
made me feel really good was that Krystel, from team Haven, offered to let me
open and have one of the gifts our contacts gave her (she ended up with three).
I declined, but the thought was super sweet. God blessed me even more when our
contact Marie went into her house and gave me a cappuccino packet and a
chocolate bar. It was so kind of her. I then had the socks blessed off of me
when the three girls on my team, Woody, Melissa and Kimberly made me an amazing
gift! Daniel had given us Christmas hats, and so they stuffed it with gifts for
me. There was an awesome drawing of a Christmas scene with my family’s names on
the stockings and even Ezekiel (my dog) by the fire with a sweet note. I
received cookies, tea (which they know I love), white strips (lol, thanks
Kimberly), a razor, and a necklace that Kimberly had bought that I have been
admiring since she bought it. Seriously?!?! Wow! I was, and still am so
incredibly touched. I truly love my three girls, and that was before they
blessed me with the amazing gifts.
The day continued on with a few of us putting on a treasure
hunt for our contacts three kids (watching them dig for treasure in the sand
was priceless), sitting by the beach reading and talking to Carrie (from team
Haven), and AMAZING Christmas lunch of green beans, sweet carrots, this great
rice mixture, and boiled okra; playing a tennis/tetherball game with the kids;
playing with play do with the Zenika, and then jumping on the trampoline with
their two boys, Joahan and Dirk. TALK ABOUT AMAZING!
Christmas night (so the family’s Christmas morning) I
started to get worried because the network was down for internet and phones,
and I still had not talked to my family to wish them a Merry Christmas.
Kimberly was amazing though and let me text my family to have them call her
phone. The connection kept being weird but was finally able to get through for
about a 2 minute conversation. Man alive do I miss my family, but I am just so
thankful to have talked to them, and to know they are happily celebrating the
holidays back home. Love you all! 🙂
After dinner we went onto the beach and had a bonfire! Will
worked a large chunk of the day cutting wood, and Blake was amazing and
provided the s’more materials! The electricity went out a couple of times, so
we were able to lay on our blankets on the beach and witness God’s beauty. I
have never seen stars so bright before. Thank you Doni Bilyeu and Jim
Danenberger for showing me the Google sky application on my evo because that
definitely enhanced the experience :). We had an amazing time talking about
random stuff, watching the boys go over a night swim and running through the
fire (don’t ask…Daniel’s bucket list was involved).
The next morning at church we put on a Christmas service. We
started it out with a skit of the birth of Jesus put on by Woody, Daniel,
Blake, Kimberly, Tommy, and our contacts kids. Alexandra led worship, which was
great to sing in English. I then gave a teaching on Christmas, Jesus humbling
himself and giving us hope. Will then gave a sermon on God’s unconditional
love, but conditional blessings.
A very different Christmas than I would have ever expected
to have; but it was an amazing one. Man alive does Jesus bless us.
Merry Christmas from Malawi!
p.s. We only have internet for blogs which is why those of
you I told I would call (i.e. SORRY HANNA and the few others I said I would!! Love you and will call the SECOND I can!) I didn’t. We are headed to South Africa next
month and should be there around the 11th so I should have internet
then. I miss and love you all so much!!
