Redefining Christmas

For the past 18 years, I've done the same thing every December. Make a Christmas list, get other people's Christmas list, hang out with friends, wait for Christmas impatiently, wake up December 25th and have a party. 

This year is a little different. 

I looked at the date yesterday and was in shock that Christmas is in 5 days because we honestly haven't really had time to think about it. I mean, there's been the occasional mention from a team member, there is a loose plan for a gift exchange, and I'm sure we will have a celebration at some point, but we haven't had a chance to really think about it.

The Protestants celebrate Christmas on January 7th. The Orthodox Christan's, along with the Catholics celebrate Christmas on December 25th. So a couple weeks ago, we were informed that we would be running a Vacation Bible School on the 25th of December with a Protestant church. I'm going to be honest, my first reaction (along with the rest of the team) was to be pretty disappointed. But as time went on, and our ministry has continued to take shape, God has started to challenge me with how I view Christmas. I'm having one of the best Christmases ever. It's just outside of my box, which is a common theme in DTS. 

On Tuesday and Wednesday, we go to a kids program with children who come from troubled homes. We are able to form relationships with the kids, and really have a positive impact on them. Last Tuesday, I was dubbed by our team to play Santa Claus for the kids. As the kids went crazy and started running up to me to poke my "stomach" (a teddy bear), I told them that I wanted to give them a gift. Our team had gotten each child a little orange as their Christmas present (we're a YWAM team, there's not much room for expensive presents). I honestly did not expect it to be a big deal to them. But as I started pulling out oranges, the kids faces lit up. Someone had actually gotten them something! Later, I found out that one of the girls had her orange eaten by someone else accidentally, and she was so crushed that she went to another room to cry. When we came the next day, we were met with extreme joy from the little kids. Everyone ran up to greet "Santa Claus," and poke my stomach (there was no teddy bear this time, so it was slightly uncomfortable).

Every Thursday night, we go to a youth ministry. I LOVE this ministry. I have formed a lot of great friendships there, and that is a real connection for us to be able to reach out to Cahul. So I was shopping with a few team members, when another team member came rushing in to tell me that we had to go now. The pastor of the church with the youth ministry had called our leader and informed him that he needed two guys to run an errand with him outside of the city. He didn't tell us what it was, just that it could take an hour and we could be back in time for youth, or it could take 3 hours, and we could miss most of youth. It was much closer to the second one. 

That pretty much defines what DTS outreach looks like.

So we're in a car with 6 or 7 other guys. Not a single one of them speak English. Through the TINY bit of Russian that some of us have picked up, we understood (or thought at least) that they were saying something about presents. So we get to this church. They tell us to go inside, then they tell us to sit down and relax. Then they tell us to go outside. As we go outside, there's a truck the size of the length of my house trying to back in on snow and ice. So we tried to push the truck in. Nope. Had to push it back out. Nope for a couple minutes, then got it to work. Then they finally realized that the truck would have to go straight in. Problem is that there were some trees blocking the entrance, and this was a HUGE truck. So, we had guys climbing the trees to cut off the branches to make room for the truck, and we still have NO idea what's going on. 

So finally the truck gets in. Then a couple smaller trucks and some cars pull in right behind it. So they pull off the tarp for the first section of the truck. Hundreds of presents. "Wow," I said quietly to myself. They pull off the second tarp. Hundreds more. "Woah....." Third tarp comes off. Hundreds and hundreds of presents. "My gosh!" I said (which the Moldavians thought was hilarious). So we spent the next while pulling presents out and loading trucks and cars. Then a man comes up to us and says "YWAM team for Emmanuel, we have to go!" (Emmanuel is the church with the youth ministry). So, I think we're done. We head back. As I start to go in the doors, my team member calls me back. I turn around and realize that one of the smaller trucks had followed us, and realized that we were unloading some of the presents at Emmanuel. So we spent the next 30 to 45 minutes unloading that truck into a back room of the church. You can not walk in that room at this point, and you can barely open and close the door. It is packed with presents everywhere. 

As I walked into the youth group, I looked around the room and had a moment where I realized "Not only do I know these people, but I really love these people." Several of my friends turned around to greet me and one of them energetically pointed to the seat next to him for me to come sit there. As I sat down, I realized that this is Christmas. 

I miss my family and home a lot. But if we're not using Christmas as an opportunity to reach out and touch other people, then what's the point? The point of Christmas is celebrating that Jesus came so that people could come into relationship with him. So what are we doing if we're not working towards saving people? The goal of Christmas should be to give it away. To love other people. Sure, part of the fun of Christmas is the atmosphere, the family time, the late nights, but what is the focus of our Christmas? 

For me the question it came down to me for me was, am I going to sulk about the fact that I'll be missing my own interpretation of what Christmas should be, or am I going to give out oranges to kids with a grin on my face, and work as hard as possible to make sure some kids get presents that they wouldn't otherwise?

God is moving through our outreach team big time. One thing that I already felt before the trip, but God has been speaking to me a lot is that relationships are the key to reaching people. I do believe God can use programs. But I believe he uses programs as tool to form relationships. Everywhere we go now, we have friends around the city. The other day I was greeted with a hug from a little boy I have only met a few times. On Saturday, we had a sledding outing with some of the youth in Cahul (and we do consider that ministry), and left with 4 people joining us at our house for dinner (actually I invited 5 or 6, and had to be told by a couple people that I needed to stop because we couldn't host half the city). We went to a school yesterday to do a presentation on human trafficking and I was greeted by several students that I have formed friendships with. This is how we are reaching Cahul. This is how I think we need to reach the world. 

But we also have a call to preach the gospel. And I got an awesome opportunity last Sunday to go into a village church (the poverty in the villages is pretty shocking) with a mostly older congregation and preach my first sermon on the "Heart of Missions." I was really nervous when I was first told that I would be preaching, but as it got closer I got a real peace about it and made it out alive with the thumbs up from my team. 

Last time in my blog I mentioned it was snowing here in Moldova. Funny story, it hasn't stopped. There is snow and ice everywhere all the time. I have taken quite a few tumbles on the ice, and my definition of cold has changed very much.


Also, I have some extremely exciting news! The two students that had passport issues and could not come with our team originally to Moldova have solved their issues and will be here on Saturday! I am so excited! These are two of my best friends and I know they are going to have a big impact here in Cahul.

Lecture phase was a life changing experience. But I have to say I am experiencing pretty explosive life change on outreach. Me and my team have big opportunities to change Cahul. Not just a short term change. But by forming relationships, and challenging the Moldovan people into a deeper relationship with Christ and presenting the gospel to people who just simply don't know about Jesus, we are pushing hard for permanent change. We are not a relief team. So what if we make people feel good for a couple months? It accomplishes nothing. But we want to leave Moldova with stronger leaders, ministries, and Christians than when we came here. We are well on our way to accomplishing this goal, and we're just getting started.

7 weeks left, a lot of big things happening. Merry Christmas from Moldova!