Christmas is a very special time for the Jarai Christians in Cambodia. Since Christmas is not an official holiday, it’s not celebrated in homes. The only place Christians celebrate is in the church. Many churches schedule their celebrations on different days so people (especially the youth) can attend each others’ Christmas events.
Our church began their celebration Friday night, December 21. They set up everything outside, since they knew the building wouldn’t hold everyone. There was a meal, sermon, and lots of singing. The next Saturday morning, December 22, our church met together for their morning Christmas celebration. The children’s group sang three songs I wrote for them – two of them were verses from Scripture that Josh translated with his team.
We helped the youth do a simple play. Two readers read Matthew chapters 1 & 2 while the actors preformed the story. The Jarai Bible Translation team had just finished translating those chapters in Matthew, so it was neat to see them put into immediate use.
Josh preached a sermon in Jarai from Matthew 2. Afterwards we had a meal together.
I made a pinata for the children, which they did after lunch was over. It was really fun to watch people participate (adults too). Josh and I laughed so hard our faces hurt.
A big thank you to the Pawleys who took many of these pictures, while I was up front helping.