Do You Hear What I Hear?

I guess the more appropriate title would be "Did You Hear What I Heard?"

We survived the painting of the school and were now looking forward to Christmas day with the girls! It definitely was a Christmas to remember...I heard things that Christmas that changed me forever. Have you heard them too?

#1 I was in Africa literally in the middle of nowhere...sleeping on the top bunk in the "jail cell" (Pic to the right)...Under a mosquito net...In the crazy hot African summer weather...However, it was still Christmas. The previous few mornings at the girls home were pretty slow going. When the alarm clock went off we stayed in bed until the absolute last second then drug ourselves to breakfast. It wasn't that we didn't want to be there, we were simply exhausted. Chasing 28 girls around all day in the summer heat will wear you out! Since we had a long day of painting the day before I expected that morning to be the same, but it wasn't. It was Christmas morning! I woke up way before the alarm clock just like I did every other year at home simply excited because it was Christmas morning. I just laid in bed because I thought that Liv would sleep until the alarm went off. I laid there and reflected on Christmas' past and how different this one was. I reflected on getting up every Christmas morning to my brother telling me it was time to get up and open presents. I actually got a little emotional, I missed that moment. For the first time in 24 years I wasn't going to hear it. After a few moments of reflection I decided I was going to roll over and try to sleep a little more because I knew it was going to be a long day. As I rolled over I heard Liv move around too. I just figured I shook the not-so-stable bunk and stirred her a little. Ha! After a second or two I heard "Merry Christmas!" I replied back with the same. After another moment of silence I heard, "It's time to get up and open the stockings our moms put in our bags..." I heard it. 8,000 miles from home I heard it. I heard God telling me "Merry Christmas. You're exactly where you're supposed to be."

#2 After breakfast Liv and I took some of the little toys, cards, and fingernail polish that our mom's packed in our stocking to the girls dorm. Liv painted fingernail after fingernail as I played cards, yo-yo'd and jumped rope. We were simply enjoying time with the girls. Due to the language barrier there wasn't much talking going on. A few words exchanged between Liv and I every once in a while and likewise among the girls. We would play game after game of Uno. Yeah, playing Uno with people you can't communicate with is quite the entertainment! Especially when different groups of girls have different rules. Some how we managed to do it, but if it wasn't for head nods and hand gestures it would have been impossible! Anyway, we played and played and loved on the girls as much as we could even though the room was mostly silent. I decided I was going to show off my mad yo-yo skills to the girls. A group gathered around and watched as it went up and down and even as I "walked the dog" a little bit. I decided to get fancy and sling it in out in front of me to do another trick. I slung it alright. I slung it right off my finger, across the room and into the wall. I heard laughter. I kept hearing laughter. I'm pretty sure I heard a little snorting mixed in! I heard "Merry Christmas. Thank you for being here."

#3 An hour or so later while Liv was still painting fingernails I was taking pictures and showing them to some of the girls. In the midst of our still somewhat silent state we heard a bell ring. It was the bell that they rang to tell everyone to report to the dinning hall. All the girls got up and ran to the dinning hall. Liv and I sat trying to figure out what was going on. It wasn't quite lunch time yet, we hoped nothing was wrong. As we got up and walked towards the dinning hall we saw this:

It was time to clean the chickens for our Christmas dinner. The closest either one of us had ever been to doing something like this was Liv cleaning an already prepared chicken in culinary school. What in the world?!? Liv was taking pictures so I thought to myself "When in Africa, do as the African's do." I jumped in and did as best as I could. We heard a bell. We heard "Merry Christmas. To the Jews I became a Jew (to the African's I became an African)... I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in it's blessings."

#4 The afternoon went on and Liv and I actually had the opportunity to slaughter, pluck, a clean a chicken ourselves. (A later post will have to share that story!) Anyway, as the afternoon was drawing to an end Liv and I went back to the jail cell to clean up for the BIG Christmas dinner and celebration later that night. We headed to Chris' house to help with the final preparations and to begin to welcome the guests as they came in from the village. 75 people crowed in the living room to feast on our rather American Christmas dinner of FRESH roasted chicken :), mashed potatoes, dressing, homemade rolls, and kool-aid! It was awesome. We topped off dinner with some mango cobbler and it was time for presents!

We gathered around as the girls eagerly awaited getting their presents out from under the awesome mango branch Christmas tree we had decorated a few nights earlier.

Before we opened presents Chris spoke for a few minutes then there was a reading of the Christmas story from Luke 2. Now granted, it was in Swahili so I'm not sure what I really heard! However, I heard, "Merry Christmas. At the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

#5 It was present time! The girls got a few presents from people including a new dress and a new pair of shoes that people from our church purchased with money they raised. The last thing they opened was their stocking that had been hanging on the windows.

A few days before Liv and I had the awesome privilege of stuffing their stockings.

We brought a whole trunk load of little things over for each girl to go along with some things that Chris had for them. We had everything from bouncy balls and yo-yo's to toy rings and necklaces to crayons and finger nail polish. It was awesome! After we handed out all of the stockings the girls dumped them out and started going through them. They put on their jewelry, tried out the markers, bounced the balls, smelled the lotions, and played with the little toys. They were in heaven. You would have thought they just recieved the greatest Christmas gift ever. Liv and I sat for the longest time just watching them go through all of their stuff and get a little more excited with every thing they saw.

In the midst of it all there was a lot of noise. However, I heard the sound of 28 little girls giggling with excitement over the gifts they had received. It was one of the greatest things I have ever heard. I heard "Merry Christmas. I came that you might have life. Abundant life. A life of Joy."

I walked away from this trip with many lessons learned, but I can honestly say that the lessons learned this day made the biggest impact on my life. I can sum up the five things that I heard that day with one word: Humble. Humbled because God chose me to be there that Christmas. Humbled because I was able to spend time with those girls, love on them and hopefully impact their lives. Humbled because He became exactly what I needed and had given me the opportunity to be His hands and feet so I could show His love through it. Humbled because He is such an awesome God and worthy to be spoken of and praised no matter what language it is. Humbled because those stockings were stuffed with what Liv and I called 'Chuck-E-Cheese" toys. Toys that kids "win" in America and have forgotten about them by the time they get home, yet they were the best things in the world to those 28 girls. Humbled.

God sent His only son to this dirty, rotten, sinful earth so that we might have life. Abundant life. A life of joy. The incredible thing about the whole story? He didn't send Him in the form of a powerful king or official like many expected. No. He sent Him in the form of a humble baby. Born in a humble stable. Laid in a humble manger. Worshiped by humble shepherds. Humble.

Last Christmas I heard humble. What did you hear?