Christmas Rush

You would think that we would have escaped the Christmas rush by living overseas in a country where Christmas isn't even a holiday. Once we finish with our Thanksgiving it's full steam ahead for the entire month!

During our class at our house I let our students decorate the Christmas tree. I was disappointed that Sii and Gam weren't with us. I think they have helped decorate for the past four years and had become part of our traditions.

When you let the kids decorate, you don't have to schedule in much time. The kids had it done in about five minutes, and since we had some little rambunctious boys this time we moved back outside quickly. :) The kids have always been very careful with the ornaments with the older children helping the younger, but I still don't like there being a long opportunity for mischief.

We started teaching the Christmas vocabulary and story at the schools. Some of the students made us cards.

Some of our students were part of a Christmas celebration at a church in the area, and they invited us to attend. They study extra at this church. We went because we thought they were actually going to be a part of the program, but they weren't. We still had a good time sitting and talking with them and having our pictures taken. It was nice to see what a different church did for outreach and how they handled everything.

I was also amazed at how many of the parents showed up. The parents always know us, but we don't always know which adults belong to which kids. By the way, aren't our kids adorable?

On Tuesdays Rusty drives an area about an hour outside of the city. For their Christmas program they had an outside group who came in and talked about a special gift from God.

The program was well done and included a good skit. The teachers enjoyed it, but they told Rusty they thought it was strange that the students told them about a gift but didn't explain how people could receive the gift. Rusty told them they were right and explained what they could have said to explain the plan of salvation. It was interesting to hear the opinions of the teachers who are all Buddhist except for one Muslim. They felt like the students should have went ahead and explained the plan of salvation and let each person make their own decision.

We also participated in the kindergarten Christmas party. This kindergarten is part of the local government, and we felt a bit shy having government officials with us. You would think we'd be used to it by now. The teacher invited Rusty up to say a few words about the Christmas story, and then told him he could talk about it more and in more detail. :) These are the same teachers that used the Christmas books we handed out last year to teach the students about Christmas this year. God is working here.

We were in charge of planning games this year. This is the first time we've ever planned the game for 100 kindergartners. Thankfully not everyone has to play at the same time. As you notice the teachers lined up with their students, they're there to "help" propel their team to victory.

Rusty learned a little late how to play to win with Thai teachers. His poor student needed more vaseline on her nose in order to gain the victory.

I figured the students would enjoyed making Rusty and BA into snowmen. They did a pretty good job. Actually, BA got to be a snowman twice that day since I volunteered him to do it at our house Christmas party.

The teachers had the students "bob" for Thai potatoes. I'll have to remember this one for the future. Everyone laughed a lot!

Spending Christmas Day together may not look the same as it used to in the States, but I wouldn't want to give up on our students, teachers, and friends. Sharing the love of Jesus with them is what Christmas is all about.