Merry Christmas from Israel!
It’s hard to believe it’s Christmas. While the weather isn’t much different than Texas weather at Christmas some years, things feel different. I haven’t heard any Christmas music all month, the stores aren’t insane with floods of people, I’ve spotted next to no Christmas decorations and I went swimming in the Dead Sea earlier this week. Not your typical Christmas.
Don’t you worry. We’ve done plenty as a team a squad to spread some Christmas cheer. The apartment I’m living in decided to decorate, two of the girls built a 3D mantle complete with fire and stockings for everyone. Bambi made a wreath from tree branches and this morning we set out to make cinnamon rolls and chai lattes for everyone before opening Secret Santa presents and cuddling up to watch ‘It’s a Wonderful Life.’
Our Christmas Tree and Fireplace, made completely out of construction paper and accessories.
We each had our very own stocking, just like at home.
Yesterday we had a squad wide Christmas celebration. I spent the day baking any and every dessert possible. We had enough food to feed the Israeli Army. While I miss being with my family this time of year, this has oddly been one of the best holiday seasons. Sitting back and enjoying the simplicity of it all is kind of eye-opening. One of the teams has been helping out a single mother here who is a believer, moved back here from the states and has 5 beautiful children, one of whom is disabled and an angel. She has blessed them and us abundantly this holiday season. She has been a true example of what a Christian should be. I feel like I’ve literally met Jesus through her this month, yet I’ve only met her once. She volunteered to take the cooks to the store to buy food on our tight Race budget. Then she bought us dessert and paid for the majority of our food for our Christmas feast, no questions asked. We were basically strangers. We felt the Lord leading us to use that money to buy Christmas presents for her children. Her family was able to join us for our Christmas celebration. It was so much fun watching them open their presents.
These are the beautiful girls who I cooked Thanksgiving and Christmas Dinner with. This is our dessert table, told you we had enough to feed the Israeli Army!
As I sit back and reflect on the simplicity of it all it’s astounding. Spending Christmas in The Holy Land has been a dream. Sometimes I expect the ‘glamour’ of a place to create certain feelings. This year I had no pile of presents under a tree, no big Santa present and not a lot of hooplah over the Season. I thought I’d really miss that and I’m realizing it’s pretty awesome. Gives you time to reflect on what Christmas really means.
We were able to sing worship together yesterday. I sat in silence just listening and looking out over the Negev desert and thanking God for his many blessings.
I’ll be leaving Monday for an overnight bus ride to Cairo. From there
we had the awesome blessing of having a day long window in which God is
giving me the best Christmas present ever, touring the pyramids for the
day. We’ll board a plane Monday night to Nairobi where we’ll stay for a couple days before driving to Uganda. We’re currently praying into ministry options for
Uganda, but each team won’t have their assignment for quite a few days.
we had the awesome blessing of having a day long window in which God is
giving me the best Christmas present ever, touring the pyramids for the
day. We’ll board a plane Monday night to Nairobi where we’ll stay for a couple days before driving to Uganda. We’re currently praying into ministry options for
Uganda, but each team won’t have their assignment for quite a few days.
Last but certainly not least, after a month of no technology a person can start to go a little nuts. We had a lot of extra time on our hands. One of the teams decided to rewrite Christmas songs and have each team perform a verse. So without further ado:
