Christmas Time in the Congo

Hey all....It's been a couple of weeks since my last blog entry....sorry about that! I really have no excuse but to say that I have just been occupied doing really menial things like getting up just in time to get to school, take care of after school activities (I am now coaching Middle School boys soccer), and trying to figure out what I should make for dinner. THAT'S A BIGGIE, let me tell you. I'm not a very good cook or very creative and so its been a challenge here in the Congo for me since coming back from our forced 2 week break without Grace. Which, by the way, has been a bummer. I'm really happy for her...being able to see many of you even today and this week....but we've hated these long separations.

CHRISTMAS......I'm sure all of you are getting ready for the 25th! Let me tell you what I am experiencing here. To this outside observer it looks like very little is happening which signifies this season is special. Our church has done some hymns which are heart preparations, our Pastor's family has put up decorations in their home, and one staff member here at TASOK has put up a nice tree and decorations...but that's it! You don't hear people doing anything which typically helps us 'capture the Christmas spirit'. TASOK (a secular school) goes on a 'winter' break....careful to not call it a Christmas break so as to not offend the many Muslim and Hindu families who attend the school (which is understandable).

My point is that we here in the Congo are not bombarded with Christmas music on all radio stations, nor the commercial push to buy this or that for those important people in our lives. Just to remind you if you forgot...this is a French speaking country (darn it) and any radio station I've listened to I can't understand!!!! Also.....I haven't watched TV for months....we don't own one and I really don't miss it anyway. WHAT I'M TRYING TO SAY.....I sort of feel alienated from what most of you are going thru and it's making this experience of being so far from home seem even stranger and so much more difficult to me at this time. I really need to focus in on my relationship with Jesus and what he means and what this season is really all about...pray for me that I can get my little brain around this foreign, strange feeling of how a different culture prepares for Christmas. So what if they don't do it like we Americans. I know neither is right or wrong.....it's just so different. Kinda like me, I guess!