Missionary Carol Hall,
.
Living way back in the
jungle with our 3 little children was an exciting time for Gary and
I. We tried to give our own children a "feeling" of an
AMERICAN STYLE Christmas. There were no roads, no
electricity, no radio, and of course no T.V., no malls, no
phones, no stores at all.......we used our imaginations to
the fullest.
We were at an orphanage
with about 120 children. We decided to give a party for the older kids
and invite some people from the village too.
We were "UNSEASONED" missionaries, and we
learned ALOT from this party!
First,
we played MUSICAL CHAIRS. It was the first time for them...
About 10 boys joined the game: ages 15 to 20 years old. The winner
would get a prize. The music started, and they finally got the idea...then
there were only four boys left... when the music stopped they would NOT
give up their chair! They wrestled
with the chairs, rolled on top of them, pulled them, shouted, screamed and
threw them but would not let them go!!!! (this
was INSIDE the house!) It's a good thing they were made out of
bamboo!!! Nobody won a prize.
Next we played
the “PUDDING GAME"........this is a fun game where each person sits
across from each other, blind folded. They each get a bowl of
PUDDING and a spoon and they have to FEED EACH OTHER both at the same
time. Everybody else watches and laughs, because the pudding is
EVERYWHERE...in their hair and nose, etc... THE WINNER is the first one who
feeds all his pudding to the boy across from him, & he gets a
prize! SO....after a few minutes into this game, when they finally got a
taste of this pudding, they stopped trying to feed the person across from them
and just started EATING from their own bowl of PUDDING ...They weren't
about to feed it to anybody else! Blindfolded and all, they all just
sat there and ate their whole bowl of pudding.
We didn't realize that
they never had pudding before and how wonderful it would taste for them...they
weren't about to feed it to somebody else! Nobody got a prize for that game
either!
Another game my husband
thought up for the little kids: He wanted to have a GREASED PIG race...
but we had no pigs. So he got a rooster instead... Whoever could
catch the rooster, could keep it for his very own! (owning your own
rooster is a very great thing in
We put up a small plastic Christmas tree, and somebody sent us
some old fashioned 'BUBBLE LIGHTS" to put on the
tree. We had a small generator which we could use for 3 hours
each night.
We invited the
orphan kids to come see the tree and the beautiful "BUBBLE
LIGHTS" ....We just thought this would really amaze them, since they had
never seen colored lights before....especially with water bubbles in them! As some of the orphans
looked at the tree, one teen aged boy asked
"PA
HALL, why do you put boiling water on your tree?" Hmmm... So much for American
traditional Christmas!
Through the years, we
have learned how different cultures react to different things; and now, in this
international church we pastor in
There is one
thing all cultures have exactly in common - The
need for a Savior, and the changed life that only Jesus Christ can
bring by the wonderful HOLY SPIRIT. As people bow and worship Him
in every language & culture here on this earth, we are changed into Heaven's culture! ...IMAGINE how it will be in
Heaven! Glory to HIS
NAME... JESUS!
Have a blessed, joyful
Christmas, wherever you are!
Carol Hall,
