Christmas 2007

We had a full Christmas this year. It was not full of all the trimmings that we expect in the States, but we were able to celebrate Christ’s birth several times.

The first time we celebrated Christmas was with our fellow MCCers at the Southern Africa Regional Retreat in Zambia. There we spent time decorating gingerbread cookies, making cards, and singing carols. We also had a night focused especially on celebrating Christmas—singing carols, scripture readings, and talking about what Emmanuel means to us.

The Friday prior to Christmas, we got together with the other MCCers in Chimoio and made Christmas cookies together. We also sang a few carols together and enjoyed each other’s company.

We then participated in our church’s Christmas Eve service. We were the first to arrive, though we had hoped that being 45 minutes late would mean that others would be there already. The next person arrived about 5 minutes later, the next about 30 minutes later. So what was supposed to start at 8 PM ended up beginning at 10:30 by the time all 10 people who came had arrived. We sang some, listened to the Pastor tell the Christmas story, Joél and I sang a carol and at 12:00 the service was over.

We got early the next morning to attend the baptismal service. Seven youths from the church got baptized. For such an important event in the life of the church, we were surprised that only one parent, two deacons, the pastor and us came to celebrate with those being baptized. We walked down to a small stream where they answered the simple question of, “Do you accept Jesus as your Savior?” before being dunked. It was a nice temperature and partially overcast, so it wasn’t too cold for those wet from the baptism or too hot for those watching from the bank.

After the baptism was over, Joél and went back to our house, grabbed our bikes and began our ride of 20 kilometers to participate in a worship service with other expats. There is a missionary compound-like place, named Maforga, about 20 km from Gondola where there are several orphanages, a clinic, church and a number of expats work. So we went there, to worship in a more familiar manner. The service was conducted in English with translation into Shiutewe. An English Anglican priest gave the sermon and a local woman led the worship. We met a few people we hadn’t met previously. We then biked back to Gondola, where our collegue, Brooke was waiting for us to arrive.

We spent the afternoon with Brooke. We drank tea and had Christmas cookies.

In the evening, Joél and I sang a few carols together. We then exchanged gifts. We are trying to figure out a few traditions to have for our Christmases together. So far the only one we have continued two years in a row is drinking a cold Coke on Christmas day! Later on, my parents called. Joél’s called several days later when his brothers were present.