Christmas is getting closer. . .

 
 
 


There’s only one more week left before our quarter ends. It really seems like we just finished celebrating Thanksgiving, but we’re already starting our Christmas programs. I am so excited because I love Christmas and we get to have Christmas everywhere here. Sunday is the Christmas at the government orphanage. The kids from the church orphanage are coming to and we are sharing the story of Jesus being born and special songs and dances that different people have prepared. This is our last week of classes at the youth center for the quarter. I am loving teaching Stuart’s advanced class for him while he is back in Australia with his family. The students are so much fun and I try to bring God into it as much as possible. After classes the group of students staying and asking questions about God and the Bible is increasing and they are staying longer than they have been. We have a DTS team from Taiwan here for a short time on their outreach and they have been such a blessing. They are excited to share about God and they are so kind and compassionate. On the fifteenth we will celebrate Christmas at the military hospital. The hospital is such a beautiful place. Today Sambot and Jchen’s mom cut the last of their necklaces and bracelets off and threw them away. God has caught her and I am excited to see the life that will come in their family. On the seventeenth is Christmas at the church. The Khmer staff and some of the children are dancing to “Shackles” by Mary Mary. We are performing a modern improv adaptation of what would have happened if Jesus had been born in Battambang today. (I’ll let you know how that actually goes.) and we are singing “O Come All Ye Faithful” in English and Khmer. Later on the seventeenth is the youth center graduation and Christmas party which also includes the Christmas play and several other things, hopefully including performances by several of the different classes and some testimonies of God’s salvation. It’s so amazing that we get to have so many different Christmas celebrations, but they are all focused on why we really celebrate Christmas. And we have a Christmas tree here with bright blinking lights and I love it.
For a little while God has been talking to me about my need to grow up in my faith and tonight he brought it up with all of us. I am being called to leave behind me the childish ways and to go deeper into what he’s calling me to. I cannot go backwards or forget what he has told me, but I must keep walking forward and be obedient, responsible and faithful if I want him to continue to use me. It’s so exciting to hear though because I want to see this nation changed and I know God does too, but it’s going to require us running hard after him and being willing to be stretched and used in ways that don’t always feel comfortable and aren’t always what we want to do. There is no room for selfishness, but it’s a good thing. The difference between the mature and the childish is that they see this- they can see with a perspective outside of their own because they listen and look for it and they realize the difference between good and evil and choose what is right. God can do the impossible and is already. God can heal. God can transform lives. God can and he wants to and he’s allowing me to be a part of it here. I am so thankful for that.