Christmas is tomorrow!! Yay! I am excited for many reasons...
1)Jesus' birthday/ celebration & reminder that He came for all of us!! Woo-hoo!
2)I get to see my family (aunts and uncles and cousins- some of which came in from Minnesota yesterday... safely I hope...)
3)The majority of the money usually spent on Christmas presents for me is instead going towards my mission trips to Haiti... it is in an envelope on the tree I think.
4)Getting to see my family open their presents that I got for them and seeing the reactions. That is always a lot of fun.
5)And the smallest bit of excitement is from the selfish American left in me after going to Haiti - presents. I have presents in my stocking, and I get presents from my aunts and uncles, and I have money that was already given to me for Christmas that I am saving.
I think it is kind of sad that the shortest (written) part of my excitement is about Jesus, and the longest (written) part is about the presents. It makes me stop and think what the majority of the world is thinking about, presents instead of Jesus' birth. Which makes me sad. Truly, truly sad. I don't want to make anyone feel guilty or ruin your Christmas (yeah right...) by thinking about this all, but just try. If you have never been on a mission trip, foreign or in-country, I'm sorry, but I'm not sure if you can imagine what I am going to say next as well. People don't have Christmas presents some places. Haiti is the place I am thinking of obviously, because that is the only place I know to talk about. But the point is, LOTS of people around the world don't have the money to buy fancy presents or buy an expensive Christmas dinner. Some might even go without dinner, and maybe even lunch and breakfast too. But they are still HAPPY. These people don't need money or fancy dinners to be happy, they already are.
There were quite a few times during the Bible School when we were in Haiti, that our translator, Peter, would ask the kids if they were happy. I never heard anyone say no. They always were happy.
Now that I think about the Bible School we did there, I wonder how many of those kids will REALLY be celebrating Christmas this year. Not just for however they celebrated it before (with presents maybe... I don't know.) But because now, some of them are celebrating their first Christmas with Jesus in their hearts. I hope they remember the stories we told them (the first day was the Christmas story, the second day was the death/resurection story) and understand what they mean. I wish I could be in Haiti right now to see what they are doing. To see how they are celebrating Jesus' birth instead of just presents. How cool would that be to have Christmas in another country? I wish SOOOOO bad to be there right now!!
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYBODY!!!!!
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3 comments:
Come join me in Canada...that's another country!!! ;)
I really liked what you had to say. It's so true. As Americans, we are so materialistic that we tend to forget the real meaning of Christmas. Even though we try to put the focus on Christ, there is so much worldliness that takes away from the True meaning of Christmas! I think it's great that you and your mom have asked for money towards Haiti as a gift! Not only is it a gift for you, but it keeps on giving, to all those that you minister to in Haiti!
Merry Christmas Tori!!!
What a great post, Tori! I am so thankful for what God is doing in your life and heart!
I completely agree with you about the Haitians being happy no matter what. They were so happy just to see us blans there because they knew we were there for them! I would love to see more, no, ALL Americans be happy like that at least for one day! Wouldn't that be awesome??!
Really great post Tori - We are too materialistic and I think it's great you are learning that lesson at your age!
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