Christmas in Africa

(Note: This may seem like an oddly-timed post, but I had it written just before John got sick. I will write all about our current situation when it's over. For now, check Facebook for updates.)

The Beautiful--and Only--Christmas Tree in Town
(at the local shopping center)

Christmas could have come and gone and, without a calendar, I don’t think I would have noticed. We planned ahead and brought a few Lego sets and superhero t-shirts, as well as plenty of made-in-China stocking stuffers, but it wasn’t enough to make the holiday. You don’t realize how much of that Christmasy feel comes from marketing and media until you get away from it for a season. The trees and lights and cinnamon smells that overwhelm every outing after Halloween in the U.S. are simply not here. And the abundance of Christmas songs that I know by heart and look forward to each year were only to be heard in my own head as I tried to make our house feel like chilly December with baking and holiday craft projects. 

I sent the boys to the storage closet to fetch the tree we brought from Texas in one of our trunks. They were gone a long time before Andy returned frustrated, holding the entire three-foot fir in one hand, asking where in the world the rest of it could have been lost to in such a short time. I laughed and told him, unfortunately, that was the whole tree. By the time we finished giggling, they had the whole thing decorated and, after plugging the lights into a 220V outlet, had to undo the whole fried mess and do it again. In the end, it looked nice on our coffee table.

My love language is not gifts, and neither is John’s, so we were more than happy to schedule a safari as our official Christmas present to one another instead of exchanging presents. We also justified the expense in two other ways: a proper celebration of Andy’s November birthday and a reason to leave the country for a few nights as required by the rules of our particular visa. Otherwise, we would have to pull the kids out of school and spend the money on travel to a possibly-seedy hotel on the other side of the border, which seemed a waste to us. This was better. So, the gallery of exotic animals I have been posting on social media doubles as our 2017 Christmas pictures. I hope you enjoyed them.

Next year we hope to report stories of lives that have been changed for the better because you sent us here. For now, we need to allow our lives to be changed by this culture and these people so that we can be useful and long term in our ministry. Having experienced our first major holiday in Malawi has given us an increased understanding of the people, and it has shown us that there are certainly things they may already be doing better than us, albeit unintentionally. It was hard to spend Christmas away from family and snow and shopping and such. But sometimes those things can overshadow the fact that Christmas really is about celebrating the birth of Jesus. It doesn't seem to be from pious dedication that Malawi doesn’t relegate Christmas to manmade, sparkly consumer goods, but for lack of resources. However, it was surprisingly refreshing to experience. Through the peace and quiet of December I was reminded that I’m not in Africa to serve myself or my family--or even to serve the Malawians--but to serve Him. My love language happens to be acts of service, so I thought it especially gracious of God to serve me with that lesson at a time when His Son deserves all the gifts. And, isn’t that just like Him?

We hope you had a merry Christmas and we certainly appreciate each and every message of holiday cheer you sent our way.