Christmas

There are so many things I want to write about my Christmas Day. I’m not sure which parts to describe in detail and which ones to leave out. But I will start by stating the obvious: This was a Christmas like none I’ve ever experienced. It wasn’t a day about gifts…although Jodie and I gave gifts to people…but it was a day of celebration.
Pastor Mbasha invited us to his church for a “Celebration of Jesus” service on Christmas morning. Whenever I visit his church that means I will be the one giving the morning message. I had forgotten that he said those words to me…I really didn’t think I would be sharing the Christmas message at his church on Christmas morning. But on Saturday night I happened to call Pastor Mbasha to ask him a question and he casually reminded me that I was giving the Christmas message at his church on Monday morning. Between seven hours of baking, unexpected visitors popping by and wrapping Christmas presents, I managed to make time to work on my message for Monday throughout the day on Sunday.
Christmas morning started off with me waking up at 5am to thunder and lightning. I decided to get up and review my notes for Christmas service. Then the power went out. So I changed my mind about reviewing my notes and went to take a shower. Jodie got up and we had tea and talked about it being Christmas morning. Then we practiced our Swahili Christmas song we learned so we could sing it in church…we even practiced some dance moves to go with the song…nothing to write about in detail…the dance moves were minimal.
When we arrived at Pastor Mbasha’s house his children were so happy to see us. They love it when we come to church with them because that means they will be driving in a vehicle to church…instead of riding on a bike for an hour to and hour and a half…one way.
It doesn’t matter what time of day we visit Pastor Mbasha’s house, they always serve us food. We had stopped by his house last Saturday morning on our way to Arusha (a city about an hour and a half away) and we were served Africa porridge. I’d never had anything like it in my life…I helped Jodie eat hers.
So on Christmas morning we were served African tea and goat liver. As we sat and ate the children got dressed. They came out in their beautifully matching Christmas outfits. Then Jodie and I went into a bedroom to put on our outfits…Pastor Mbasha had outfits made for us to match the ones his family was wearing…his Christmas gift to us. After we were all dressed Jodie and I passed out the presents we brought for Pastor Mbasha and his family. Everyone took their gift and left to their rooms to open them. One at a time they came out of their rooms to thanks us...so sweet.

Jodie and I had driven both orphanage vehicles this morning because Pastor Mbasha had lots of family visiting from all over Tanzania for Christmas and they wanted to come to church and share in the celebration of Jesus service. So everyone piled into both vehicles.

Church was a very special time. Everyone had come to celebrate and that is what they did. It is hard to describe the church service because it is not like any in America. We are out in the middle of nowhere in a cement and brick church with a dirt floor. There is a wasp nest on the inside roof with wasps flying around the entire time. But no one seems to notice. The focus of the people remains on worshipping and celebrating…I loved it.
Jodie and I sang our Christmas song and everyone joined in to sing so we sang it again…that was fun.

I love presenting the message at Pastor Mbasha’s church. Everyone sits so intently listening…including all of the children. It always amazes me to watch the little ones sitting there watching and listening…no one has to talk to them about goofing around or talking too loud…they just listen.

After church all of the members of Pastor Mbasha’s church climbed into the back of the truck or squeezed into the van and returned with us to his house for the Christmas meal. Pastor Mbasha had promised goat cooked various ways and he did not disappoint.
Jodie and I brought the baked goodies we had made the day before and everyone enjoyed them. It was a very nice meal. There were so many people…between his family and church members the inside of the house, front yard and backyard had people in plenty. After eating Jodie and I went for a walk. It was a beautiful afternoon. We took pictures of Mt. Kilimanjaro and Mt. Meru. There were beautiful flowers in bloom…the view was beautiful everywhere we looked.

When we returned from our walk everyone wanted us to take pictures. We took LOTS of photos…they loved our digital cameras because the image pops up right after taking the photo. During the week we are going to print some of the photos out and bring them some of the pictures as a surprise…they’ll love it.
We will be going back next week for New Year’s Eve celebration…Pastor Mbasha calls it Thanksgiving Day…giving thanks for all the Lord has done in 2006…he informed me that I will be sharing the message that morning at church.

By the time we got home it was dark. I wanted to call my mom and wish her a Merry Christmas but I was so tired. Then I remembered that with the time difference…Tanzania is 11 hours ahead of California…I could get a good night’s sleep and wake up the next morning and wish my mom a Merry Christmas on Christmas Day…so I did.
My Christmas this year was very special. I spent it with a wonderful family and met a whole bunch of new people. I missed being home but I didn’t focus on that part…I am here so I focused on being here and enjoying the day…and I did.