Christmas in the Neighborhood

Sharing with the bridesmaids and the bride (under red/white
checkered cloth, getting her hair done).

Back when it was a major Muslim festival, one of our neighbors challenged us to slaughter a ram so we could share the meat with our neighborhood like people of means do in their culture.  So, when we did this for our Christmas celebration, we got the chance to go around and visit many of our neighbors to give them this treat of meat.  Our first visit was to the neighbor we know the best and who helped us butcher the ram.  We wished him blessings and told him that we were sharing this meat because of the love that God has given us in sending Jesus the Messiah. He responded diplomatically by saying “may God give us light (for understanding more).”  La Maestra, whom he now knows well and so this was appropriate, picked this up quickly and added that this is part of our joy because Jesus is the light that God has sent to us to know him more!  We didn’t get the impression from anyone that we were being too forward in our sharing meat and Christmas blessings with them, and most of the neighbors were either interested in hearing what we would say or showed that they understood the basic idea of our celebration in what they said to us.  La Maestra also had a chance to greet a big group of bridesmaids, and explained the reason for our joy and the assurance that we’ll live with God forever- which they listened to well and repeated with the enthusiasm of a group of ladies riled up for a wedding.  

We also did several things for the neighborhood kids to let them share in our celebration and to get the message of Jesus’ coming across.  Christmas evening La Maestra gave out glow lights and candy canes to neighborhood kids.  This started out well with the kids we know well being able to repeat that Jesus is the light of the world and that he is a good shepherd for us like the candy canes' shepherd crook.  But soon the news of gifts had spread and it degenerated into a big crowd of kids pushing and mobbing to try and get something no matter how they were warned and instructed.  When something like that happens, it makes you wonder how much it’s really possible to make an impact on people when distributing things, but it was also a clear opportunity to make at least a small impression and share a little joy with the world!

-- El Padre