well it will be in 6 days!!! and do they know it's Christmas time at all???
well i've ben asking myself that for a few weeks now! it's crazy to think that at home the carol services willl have happened, the tree is up, (some of) the presents wrapped the lights are up not to mention that it is cold and everyone is wrapped up in coats hats scarfs and gloves! Right now for me i'm in that state when you're in July trying to remember what it's like to feel that cold or that Christmas vibes! Now don't get me wrong, there is a hint of chirstmas in the Air, and for the locals and the Africans i get the o,pression it really does feel like Christmas, and when Christmas day come around who knows what i'll feel?!?!?!?
Now i know some of you are asking, how on earth can you stand to be away at chirstmas, and i'm not going to lie, it's gonna be hard and it's gonna suck and i'm gonna miss people.I can imagine some of you thinking- what kind of a God would lead you to a place where you're going to be away at Christmas, where you're going to be working right up to Christmas eve and it's busy and you're tired!?!? But when i ask myself these questions i think about my life and my year and i consider the amazing adventure that God has taken me on! i think about the joy of the children's faces when you take some time to play with them i think about the fact that Christmas is celebrating the birth of Jesus so why shouldn't i be telling people about him on Christmas Eve, i think about how (hopefully) i will have another 70 years of chirstmas' and for once don't other people deserve to receive something special this chirstmas, this year we are providing 1 family with a house, 2 families with food and clothes, moving 1 church a step closer to completion and telling hundreds of people about the love of God and the hope and freedom in Christ Jesus- and they need that a whole lot more than i need my roast dinner on chirstmas day (although i would quite like it) and i think about the amazing things i have learnt and done how i'll be able to tell people for year to come about the chirstmas i spent in Tanzania and the joy that filled my heart when i prayed for a child i knew from that moment that God would be protecting them for the rest of their life! I think of the adventure of having malaria and the time my throw up was pink! and i am so greatful for this year i'm not afraid of what will happen to nme because i know that God is with me and he is going to protect me for the next 7 months, that i know that no matter how hard chirstmas is God will be my comforter, i think about my amazing friends here and how at the end of this year i will have many a good reason to me visiting America! and although i do miss my family and my friends so so much i know that i have next year and the year after, but this year it's all about giving hope of next year and life in the year after to many others that fear what next chirstmas will bring.
i love you all, Happy Christmas and have a blessed 2012 xx
