“And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, 
stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more."
For the first time in 27 years I did not wake up at my parent's house on Christmas morning. I did not have the smell of cinnamon rolls lerking in the air or my sisters waking me up jumping around saying it was Christmas morning. Nope, this Christmas was something completely different. Instead of spending Christmas morning with my family opening presents I spent Christmas morning with 150 Malaysian kids.
We arrived to the church we had been working with all month on Christmas morning around 8:00am. We had no idea what to expect. We walked in the front door to find 150 of the happiest kids I have ever seen. They were all sitting on the floor of the church listening to the gentleman in charge of the program. He was dancing around and making them laugh. Then they began to sing Christmas songs…lots of Christmas songs. Our team was next on the program list. We quickly went to the back to get in “costume”. We were performing the Nativity story for them. As our contact and his wife began to read the Christmas story out of Luke we walked in when qued and acted out what they were reading. Timothy and I were Mary and Joseph. We used a pillow as baby Jesus. We even built a stable and props out of random material from the jungle.
After our performance we stayed and played with the rest of the kids. We played games, sang, and danced. As the program was ending each child there got one present each. Just one. The smaller kids only received a balloon. Can you imagine if a child in America woke up to only a balloon on Christmas morning? The joy on these little faces when they received their one balloon was priceless. They were as happy as they could be. They held on to their balloons like they would never let them go. They had such grateful little hearts.
We left there with a Christmas morning we will never forget. We got to experience the true meaning of Christmas. The 25th arrived without packages, boxes or bags. Like the Grinch, we learned that Christmas is so much more. Most times at Christmas we worry so much about what gifts we are going to buy each other that we fail to concentrate on the real meaning of Christmas. Although we missed our families so much and it was very difficult to be away, this Christmas taught me so much that I will never forget. I will forever have a new view of Christmas.
