We hope that you all had a good Christmas & are looking forward to a New Year. Thank-you for all of the support you all have been giving, your prayers, your packages & your financial support. This Christmas has shown me why we are truly here.
Christmas eve we went over to friends so our children could play & we could enjoy time together. As we were in our taxi the kids were talking about Christmas & Jesus. Then I realized that our Mongolian taxi driver had no idea what we were talking about. He had no idea what Christmas was or anything about Jesus birth. We enjoyed our time at our friends & left to go home. On our way home the kids were getting excited about Christmas & talking about Jesus. Our taxi driver on the way home also had no idea about Christmas. For us & many of you this maybe hard to conceptualize, but they know nothing about it.
Christmas morning was funny because Teresa woke me up at 6am & said that have to go open gifts. I said, why? The kids are still asleep. Just a few more minutes. So we all got up & once the kids were awake they were excited. After skyping family & opening our gifts we decided to have something to eat. When Teresa & I looked out the window everything was as if Christmas was not happening. Traffic was crazy in front of our building because parents & school buses were getting kids to school. Everyone was off to work in the city. Even the girls in the store at the end of our building did not know what day it was. It is hard for us to believe that there are people in this world that have no knowledge of Christmas.
The Mongolians that know & celebrate Christmas do so in a very different way. They get together with friends/family sing praises, eat a meal & maybe give a gift. A humble way of expressing a humble birth. Most of them celebrated Christmas Eve because they all had to work Christmas day. There are times when it is difficult to be away from family this time of year, but, stepping out of western culture has made me realize that Jesus has been removed from Christmas. Non-Christians have used the gift of Jesus to sell more items. I believe that giving a gift is an appropriate way to symbolize Jesus' birth, but the extreme excess my eyes have been opened to living here.
Thank-you all for your prayers & support. We pray for you all here many times. Enjoy your time with the people you love & look forward to the new year. We all have much to be thankful for & are blessed.
Oh, I know that the last few posts I have been in disbelief about how cold it has been here. Being out in it has caused me to look out at the 10's of thousands of gers in the districts that surround us & pray for the families living in them. I know that the coal smog from time to time is difficult to be in. But, if it is all they can afford to keep warm then I'm ok with it. I am so thankful that God has us here. We have so much & so much to be thankful for.