So, this isn’t the first time I have found myself in a foreign country away from family at Christmas time. Let me tell you a Christmas tale of an American in North Africa....
So something inside of me compelled me to start inviting the UN men to the Christmas service, as there was a 9am English service and all of them speak English. I started off with the 2 that were in my compound. I thought it would also be nice to cook something for them. So I was planning maybe a small little lunch with them. Well, then I started to invite the other people to the service as well: Muslims, Hinuds, Atheists, and Christians alike. It turned out to be quite the popular idea. Most were happy to join me for the service. None of them had been in a church while in the UN, and some had never even been in a church.
Well, that then brought up the issue of dinner: I couldn't very well invite all of these people to a Christian Holiday Service and then only feed 2 of them. Soooo, I ended up inviting the whole lot of them for dinner at 7pm in my compound. I was prepared to cook 2 chickens, fried potatoes, rice, papaya salad and cole slaw. The British ladies were in charge of drinks and dessert. But as the number kept increasing, I thought that I better request that some of them bring a dish as well because I didn’t have enough food….
We all went to the church service; there were about 8 of them who went. I have to admit, it was nothing like the ones in America, and it was less than fabulous in my opinion. However, all of them at least pretended like they enjoyed it :) So after that service I biked it on over to the MK (my people group) church service which began at 11. I made it right on time. This service was lovely, and it lasted from 11 until 3:30. Whew! It was a looong service! There was also lunch with the locals afterwards, so I had to rush and finish eating in order to make it home in time to cook everything.
Long story short, it was a miracle. Every single dish turned out great. There were 12 people there from 9 different countries. Now, believe me, I thought it was a nice night and I enjoyed it. But I was unprepared for the response I got from everyone. Everyone kept saying how great of a night it was, and how they were so, so happy that I organized everything and cooked. Person after person, time and time again. It was so good for me to see that these people understood that I was welcoming them and wanted them to celebrate a Christian Holiday with them. God’s love definitely showed through. Praise the Lord!
But it doesn’t end there- the people enjoyed themselves so much that they wanted to do something similar on New Year’s Eve at our compound, knowing full well there would be no alcohol. There was a group of about 9 of us and we all shared our testimonies, or our thoughts about God. And at the end of it one of the men said “You know, we need to have something like this every week. We need so much encouragement and it is so difficult to do things by ourselves. Can we please set something up?”
So now we have a weekly Bible Study for the UN; anyone who is interested can join. And you know what the great thing is: it was their idea. It wasn’t the white people trying to convince the UN that they needed to study the Bible and know God, but rather they saw that we were there to share with them and encourage them, regardless of their faith, and wanted more of it.
God is good!
