Simply Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone! It has been an unusual Christmas for us. Last Sunday our pastor announced we would be having a Christmas morning service which would include traditional Christmas carols. We laughed walking back to our car after church this morning, because we had never before considered the songs we sang to be Christmas carols. And so it goes. Here is a peek at our Christmas in Lesotho. 

#1 Our tree: We collected sticks from around our house to build a Jesse tree, remembering all the promises pointing to the coming Savior. The kids in our school helped color the ornaments and led the devotional times. 

#2 The creche: Africans seem to be very gifted in repurposing items, creating treasures from trash. Beth followed suit by fashioning a nativity scene from toilet paper tubes! This is a "Dakotah special."

#3 Christmas Eve: Just family :-) Pizza is a traditional meal for Fennemas, and we kept that tradition. Beth bought a small spinach and feta pizza at the grocery store, and Charis adorned it with tomatoes. Looked pretty festive. 

#4 Gifts: Grandma and Grandpa stuffed some gifts in a suitcase that a volunteer group from Holland Christian brought to Lesotho. They were soft and snuggly and will be purr-fect for next winter! 

#5 Christmas Day: After church, we went swimming (it is summer here right now) and then took a long nap. In the evening, we enjoyed Christmas dinner at Beautiful Gate. 

It has been a simple, uncomplicated Christmas, yet meaningful. The "Christmas" passage that keeps coming back to me is from Phillipians 2:

Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate? Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose.Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being.When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.

Christmas is about Christ coming to earth with a mission to submit, serve, and sacrifice Himself for us. Our prayer is that we will grow into this passage, learning how to be more Christlike as we live and serve in Lesotho, submitting to whatever God calls us to do. 

Alien Invasion

     This past weekend we met up with some familiar faces, lives we've intersected with in Holland, MI; Ontario, California; and even Aurora, Colorado. A team from Holland Christian High School swooped down into Lesotho like super heroes to volunteer at Beautiful Gate and other ministries for orphans in the Maseru area. Maybe you will recognise a few of them!

Back row on left: Keith Blystra, formerly taught at Ontario Christian and now teaching at HC. Back row, second from the right is Mike Verkaik, South Christian grad, Calvin College grad, and teacher at HC.

     Holland Christian students and faculty have been heavily involved with Beautiful Gate over the years, and this trip provided more members of their staff and community an opportunity to lend a hand in blessing the children and workers here. In June, some of them will return with a group of high school volunteers. 

     Another special treat for us was to see Pastor Tim again and meet more of his family.Tim led a spiritual retreat for orphaned high school students and teen moms at the Good Shepherd Center. Tim's sister Cindy (center) and her son Josh (red shirt) began supporting some of these students about ten years ago. Today, more than 500 teens have graduated from high school as a result of their faithfulness. Cindy and Josh have an incredibly poignant story of how God used a major crisis in their lives to bring healing and opportunity to many, many people halfway around the world. Just pray that Josh will write a book!

Dakotah, Micky (Josh's wife), Tim, Cindy, a friend of Cindy's, and Josh

The dynamic duo:
Cindy with Sister Constance, who is in charge of running the Good Shepherd Center

     While we were at the retreat, Sister Constance shared her dream of starting a school and vocational center for students in her community. A local farmer has offered to sell her land from an adjoining property, but she needs to raise $16,000 to purchase the land. If you are interested in helping meet this challenge, please e-mail us and we will help put you in touch with her organization. 

This is the property that is available for building a school.