Sunday, December 24th, was a very full day for our family. It was the day our Jarai church held their special Christmas service and the day we had a special Christmas Bible Club in the afternoon.

The day before we bought our kids Khmer school uniforms, which is what children usually wear to dress up for church. Our kids were so excited that morning to put on their new clothes. Some said they had never before been excited to go to church, but THIS Sunday they said they couldn’t wait to get to church. They were so cute and it made this mama’s heart so happy.

For a few weeks I’d been working with the children and junior high to prepare a Christmas program. Unfortunately the accident interfered with my rehearsals and it wasn’t all I had planned it to be – but it was fine. The children sang the gospel with tunes I`d composed for Bible verses (Genesis 1:1, Exodus 20:2, Romans 3:23, Romans 5:8, and another original song I wrote). Afterwards the junior high and some youth read and acted out the Christmas story. Several other groups sang for the service and Josh preached. After the service we had a meal together. Many unbelievers came from the village to the service.

We bought 10 pieces of candy for each kid at church. The kids helped me fill all the bags with the different kinds of candies. We did over 100 bags.

We got home and had a short while to prepare for Bible Club. First we played games outside, then we had the kids come in our house (we usually meet out on the porch) so they could see the Christmas tree. Josh finished telling the Christmas story (he’d told the first part two weeks before). Afterwards we had the kids decorate Christmas cookies.

After that we had supper and went to bed! It was a good way to celebrate Christmas with our Jarai brother and sisters and share the real meaning of Christmas  to our neighbor kids.