Christmas Eve 1999

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This Christmas more than any other, I think I was able to understand the meaning of being born in a stable.  As we had our Christmas Eve service in the open-air carpenter shop in our church in Lis Lis, it really hit home. Becky was reading the Christmas story while Adam put flannel figures up to help visualize the account, and Abbie played Silent Night on the keyboard.  I watched Jake and used the video camera.

 

Enter the animals.  It was muddy.  The floor was already sawdust covered, and the animal dung smelled strong.  A dog with diarrhea decided to add to the scene, then a couple pigs (which I doubt were present at the first Christmas) started to rub their backs against the flannel board.  A cow mooed close by, and a donkey brayed more in the distance.  Certainly not a place that I would choose to have a baby!

 

All around us, people were setting off firecrackers, drinking, and basically having a party, much, I would suppose, like the atmosphere at the inns in Bethlehem during the census.  Our neighbors missed the significance of what we were meeting for in the carpenter shop, just as the people in Bethlehem had little knowledge of the baby being born in the stable.

 

I will never forget the Christmas Eve of 1999.  I almost am sorry that there are plans for a workteam from The States to help build a church building in April for our little congregation. Even as we gain, we will lose something.

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