Christmas on the field doesn’t look the same, and some may say it doesn’t feel like Christmas. You’re not surrounded by hallmark movies, snow, cold weather, Christmas lights and decorations, but this Christmas has filled my heart with more joy than I could have ever imagined!
As World Racers, we are pretty innovative, not sure if that’s a secret requirement that they don’t tell you they’re looking for or if it comes after being accepted to the race (chicken or egg?) but it’s a thing.
We’ve made this Christmas our own and it has all of the warm (okay maybe just sweaty) and some of the tingly feelings of the Holiday.
Let me show you the joys of Christmas in Zambia (cause it’s been seriously awesome and such a beautiful blessing)
Okay so let’s start with Christmas preparations:
the first full day (ish) that we were here we had a break in ministry so we turned on Christmas music and made paper snowflakes, and we hung a string of lights that Ashley bought at the local supermarket. A few days later we made a Christmas tree out of some of our clothes and topped the tree with a star made out of a few plastic bags from the store.
Christmas Eve Eve:
we invited a bunch of our village kids to come and play. We danced, threw around a rugby ball, played soccer, played out the nativity story (Tyler was a great donkey!), limboed and laughed for hours. Later in the evening we had our village families come over for dinner (which was so good!). After dinner we got to surprise the kids and families with presents (THANK YOU FOR THOSE DONATIONS!). The whole night was seriously so incredible and beautiful. It was Christmas with our [Zambian] families! It brought so much joy and love to my heart that I almost started crying. Christmas here doesn’t look like Christmas in the States, they go to church and then they go home and it’s like another normal day. To be able to give them our Christmas was really special. One of our families never got to open presents until that night, and momma got a bible that she had been wanting! So many good laughs and smiles were exchanged and it just reminded me that Christmas is about who you get to share the time with. It was so so good to be able to just give to these families and spend time with them.
Christmas Eve:
our squad met at one of the ministry sites and had dinner together. We exchanged our secret Santa gifts and then got surprised with White Elephant (with every racers favorite things, snacks!). It was SO sweet to be able to spend this time together as a big family.
Christmas Day:
spending time with the family meant going to cafes to use WiFi to FaceTime friends and family. Later in the evening we had dinner together and did secret Santa, so more family time (which is always good).
Christmas didn’t look like it does back at home but it has a new found appreciation for what it’s truly about. You take away the decorations, the gift getting, and the overly extorted parts of Christmas and you get to really focus on the genuine time spent with others and the birth of Jesus.
