Experiencing a warm (sometimes hot) Christmas time took some getting used to again, but we managed and I'm sure will be better prepared next year. It is just hard to sing Christmas carols about snow, midnight clear, bundled in blankets, etc. when you're sweating, but such is life on the otherside of the globe. One South African commented to me that it'd be nice to have some southern hemisphere carols. Its true that it would make a big difference and I wouldn't even know where to begin as all I can think of is "chestnuts roasting on an open fire" could become "chestnuts roasting on the pavement."
Despite the adversity of the weather, we had a wonderful and blessed Christmas reflecting on our Lord's birth and celebrating the life that he lived and sacrifically gave on our behalf to reconcile us to Himself. Our Christmas time began with the picture above of our Christmas service. Most churches here have their carol service at the beginning of December as most people are gone on holiday once the school year ends in the second week in December. It is amazing to see the place clear out for holidays. Businesses close down for weeks and the government services are finished until the second week in January. Traffic becomes non-existent and you can easily move around this huge metropolis. Here's the funny part: they all go to Durban and the beach and you see pictures of the beach where people cannot even swim but just stand in the water shoulder to shoulder. The joke is that you're more apt to meet a neighbor while you're on holiday than in the town where you live. Anyway, we held out on our service until the 17th of the month and held our carol service at a sister church's building. It was great. This church only has about 15 people attending it (another time for that story) but both churches invited people and we ended up almost filling the place with about 200 people. We had all the people groups represented and many unsaved friends and families. We sang carols and read Scripture and shared the Gospel. We had two gifted pianists and a soloist. It was an amazing time and was enjoyed by all--so much so that the plan is to rent a hall next year to invite more. It was great to see people from all over Joburg come together to celebrate the birth of Jesus.
On Christmas Eve, our good friends, the Braverys, came over to celebrate with us. Rob is leading that small church where we met for our carol service and it has been our privilege to become good friends with them. Their son Daniel has become best friends with Kyle (also Leslie and Skyler) and together they all acted out the Christmas story. Here is a picture of the group afterwards. Daniel's mom, Bev, just had a baby girl, Dana May, and so we had our baby Jesus for Leslie to hold. Leslie is already a great babysitter.
Our Christmas day was a quiet one as we spent it with just our family, but it was a wonderful time together, and we are so thankful to the Lord for the place where He has put us and the opportunity that He has given us to serve Him. It was our privilege to celebrate the birth of Emmanuel and remember that truly God is with us.
We had a fun time together as well and here is a picture of Skyler's top gift--His Superman pajamas--and it hardly came off for the first few days. He would run around pretending to fly with his cape streaming out behind him. We even had a kickball game with him running around as Superman. Our little hero really fills the bill as well.
Our prayer is that you had a blessed Christmas as well celebrating not only your time with family but also the greatest gift of all--the Lord Jesus Christ.
