Christmas in Thailand

The past few weeks, I've often asked people in our part of Thailand "Do you know what the meaning of Christmas is?" Hardly anyone has a clue what it is really about. Some believe that it is our New Years (that came from the principal of a school). Some think its just a good time for partying. Most, however, have no clue. Thailand has Christmas trees, lights, and even Santa Clause these days, but I've met very few people out in rural Thailand who understood that Christmas is a day for celebrating the birth of Jesus. This gave our family many opportunities for sharing about Jesus this holiday season. I was given the opportunity by some of our World Vision friends to go share at a school recently with over a couple hundred kids. Because it was about Christmas, I was able to share about who Jesus is, why he came, and what this has to do with Christmas (a rare opportunity in Thailand).

Last night, Christmas Eve, we loaded up the truck with our fellow villagers (2 loads of people) and took them about 20 minutes down the road to a big event put on by a nearby church fellowship. The ride there was interesting. I think that with one load of people, I had b/w 15-20 people in our little white truck. They listened to music, watched dancing, and heard about Jesus (for most people, this was a first). This lead to a great conversation with a lady across the street on Christmas day who was reading a tract given to her the night before. Please pray for Nah-Ree and others that God would continue to work in their hearts.

Today, Christmas day, we had a great time opening presents, and spending Christmas as a family. Pamela and I really miss spending Christmas' with our family back in the States. We had intended on using Skype to talk to them, but our computer broke 2 days before Christmas and just got repaired this afternoon. There is no substitute for spending Christmas with family, but we extended our family tonight. We invited some of the kids and adults in our village to come join us for Christmas. We ended up with over 80 people in our house...we shared the Christmas story (starting from Adam and Eve), played a game, sang some Christmas songs, and ate some of Pamela's Christmas cookies. It turned out to be a pretty good Christmas!

P.S. i'll be getting some pics and maybe a video or two up soon...