We had been wondering how it was going to be for us this year, spending Christmas away from our families. Every day is “hard” in that respect…we miss our loved ones so much. Thanks to some friends, Tom and Nora Young, from Cassville, Mo. who came to spend Christmas week with us, it was much better than we had anticipated. They brought 4 action packers filled with things from home, many of which we had requested. We unpacked everything from lamps to pecans, taco seasoning to chip clips, tools to earrings, anMP3 player to bug spray, chocolates to reading glasses. But of all the wonderful things we received, requested and unexpected, for ourselves and for others, in our minds, the most cherished were notes from our grandchildren and their pictures. Those are treasured possessions these days.
I want to tell about Christmas with Tom and Nora. They unselfishly gave up Christmas with their own families in order to come be with us. We let them rest their first day here (Monday, the 22nd), but from that point on, we drug them all over Managua and three directions outside of it!
Tuesday was a full day for all of us. We started out by going to the Children’s Center to bless them with some Christmas cash. Normally, we take diapers and wipes there every month but after speaking a few weeks ago with Chris and Tim Bagwell, who operate the New Life Nutrition Center and Orphanage; we opted to give cash this month to help with food costs. They are always so appreciative of anything we do but this month, there seemed to be an even greater appreciation expressed. The downturn in the economy in the U.S. hits everyone hard, including those who are serving on the field as independent missionaries. Because the children were getting ready for their Christmas piñata and party, we gave Tom and Nora a quick tour of the facility, grabbed a few hugs from some of the little ones and left to get on with our day.
We had to stop at Mario’s, our money changer, on the way in to Managua and after completing our transaction, we blessed him with a large tin of cookies imported from the U.S. His smile was the brightest I’ve seen it and he had to shake Jim’s hand as we wished him a Merry Christmas. We repeated the same gesture with the young girl who stands on the street selling papers. We have been buying papers from her almost daily for about six months now. She always is very cordial but is quite business-like, wanting only to sell her paper and not interested in talking. After all, you can’t make commission on conversation. When Jim handed her the tin of cookies along with the 5 cordobas for the paper, it was déjà vu. We saw on her face, the same look of surprise quickly followed by unabashed joy that we had seen on Mario’s. This was far better than fighting the crowds at the malls!
Most of the rest of the day was spent shopping…I told Tom and Nora that I thought that must be my spiritual gift! (I hope you know I'm saying that tongue in cheek!) But we weren’t buying for us or even for each other. We were busy buying our items to make our food bags. Thanks to their generosity, we were able to purchase even more items than we had originally planned and I was so excited, I thought I would explode!
We stopped for lunch in the early afternoon at one of our favorite little places to eat, Dona Blanca’s, which is a little street-side open air restaurant. Jim and I try to go there once every week or so as a treat to ourselves and to help support Dona Blanca and her waitresses. Our lunches are always more than we can eat and it costs less than $5 including a bottle of pop for each of us. We had a two-fold purpose for going: to eat a really tasty lunch but also to drop off another tin of cookies and a fruit basket of apples and grapes, “luxury” fruits for the holidays. Dona Blanca was so excited that I got a kiss and a hug! She proudly displayed them on a table and then told us that no one had ever given her such a wonderful treat before! She was so excited. After stuffing ourselves, getting more hugs and kisses, we got ready to leave.
There is a crippled man who unofficially guards the cars parked on the street in front of Dona Blanca’ s for 5-10 cords (25-50 cents). Some folks pay him, some don’t. We do. He has come to know us and always greets us when we arrive…I didn’t think to bring him a cookie tin that day, but as we were leaving, Jim gave him 50 cords and wished him a Merry Christmas. I didn’t even know that man could smile but I know it now! He actually made it to Jim’s door before Jim did and opened it up for him, thanking him all the way. As I said, I love Christmas!
We finished up our food shopping in the afternoon and made it home before dark. We assembled the food bags for delivery for the next day and spent the evening on the porch, rocking, laughing, rehashing the day and catching up on news from home. We turned on the Christmas lights on our Charlie Brown tree and as I sat and stared at some of the ornaments I had brought from home and just how special they are to me, I also thought about the wondrous love of God. He loves us so much…I thought about how He works in our lives, day in and day out, how He guides us, how He uses us to bless others and how He uses them to bless us. I thought about what this season really is about.
I wondered how I would have felt if the Bagwells, Mario, the paper girl, Dona Blanca or the crippled man would have turned their backs on our gifts of cookies, fruit, and cash to them? They were such simple, temporal gifts but nevertheless, a rejection would have hurt. But they didn’t…they received them with joy and pure delight. Isn’t that how we should receive the most precious gift of all, the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ? In order for this to truly be a season of giving, I think there has to be the receiving. I pray each and every one of you have received the gift of salvation and if you’ve not yet done so, there’s not a better time to receive that gift than now…the best present you’ll ever receive.
We went to bed tired that night, but also with such a great sense of anticipation…after all, the next day was Christmas Eve day! Could it get any better?
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