It’s hard to believe Christmas is only a few weeks away! The years keep flying by faster and faster, some times it is hard to get past the busyness of holiday shopping and final exams to have time to sit still and think for just a little while why we celebrate what we do. This Christmas I’ve been given the incredible opportunity to do something like that in a country where 83.4% of the population is below the poverty line. It’s important to keep in mind the poverty line is not necessarily an indication of how many people are in need, only an indication of the point were that need is labeled as real “poverty”.
I will be traveling with twenty three other college students from Anderson University with our BCM (Baptist Collegiate Ministry) director to Guatemala City, Guatemala. We fly out from Greenville/Spartanburg VERY early (I keep reminding myself I’m waking up for Jesus) Saturday, December 9th and our return flight lands on December 19th. While in Guatemala City, we will be working with Tom an Elizabeth Allen’s ministry Hearts for the Children. To learn more about what they’ve got going on, feel free to visit www.heartsforthechildren.org.
The work we’ll be doing down there will consist largely of children’s ministry, including Christmas parties, providing meals for the children (we have to peel hot dog weenies. . . I have no idea how that is done, but it sounds gross), giving out toys to children who will not get anything besides what we hand out, and giving out clothes to the children as well. In addition to the children’s ministry, we will aid in the inner city prostitute ministry, work at a children’s AIDS hospital, do construction work on a local church, provide several feeding programs, and visit the city dump. That final activity may sound strange, but here’s the kicker: the Guatemala City dump is where thousands of Guatemalans will spend Christmas with their families; it is their home. We will spend time with the people there simply praying for them and tending to whatever physical need we possibly can.
“Will it be difficult to celebrate Christmas with my family, exchanging gifts, which cost more than most of the people I encounter make in a year?”
I could not be more more excited about going, but to be completely honest I am already hesitant about the return home. How will I have changed when I return? Will it be difficult to celebrate Christmas with my family, exchanging gifts which cost more than most of the people I will encounter make in a year? How in the world do you reconcile what you see in a children’s AIDS hospital with the most wonderful time of the year?
Ironically it is these same questions that motivate me to go. I want to change when I return. One of my prayers (as is the rest of the team) is to come back different, to no longer be complacent in day-to-day life but to encounter this life more abundantly which Christ speaks of in John 10:10. I want to learn what it means to take what scripture teaches and apply it to a world which so desperately needs water which eternally quenches thirst and bread which eradicates hunger forever. I want to take the gospel outside the confines of the church and meet people where they are, sharing with them the hope that is joy of my soul and the peace of my heart. I want to be able to truly appreciate how much God has blessed me and my family, but realize that because we have been given more we are expected to give back more as well; not simply in the sense of a ten percent tithe, but with our very lives. I want to be able to share the love of Christ with a child who may not see another Christmas and know that God has a purpose for every child stricken with that disease. I don’t know if I’ll ever understand it, but oh the comfort of the knowledge that His ways and thoughts are so much higher than ours!
“I want to be able to truly appreciate how much God has blessed me and my family, but realize that because we have been given more we are expected to give back more as well...”
If I am to be completely honest, I must confess that my reasons in going on this trip may be more selfish than anything else. My highest hope for this trip is to come back with a refreshed passion for the gospel and a better understanding of how the teachings of a man who lived thousands of years ago can still move the hearts of the hopeless in 2006.
After all, is that not what Christmas is truly about? Is it not about what Jars of Clay called “the birth of the death that would bring us to life”?
This Christmas may we remember the incredibly humbling blessing of Jesus Christ, our Savior, Redeemer, Friend. May we, just as David pleaded in Psalm 51, have the joy of our salvation restored to us so that we cannot help but sharing the life-changing news that Jesus Christ is Lord! May we be moved by the story we have heard countless times in such a way that we ache not only to tend to the spiritual needs of a fallen world, but the physical needs as well (James 2:14-17). Believe me, I am well aware of the sheer triteness of the coming statement, but just because it has been used time and again does not mean it has lost any of its truth:
May we never forget the reason for the season. God bless and have a safe and Merry Christmas!
Feliz Navidad:
Christmas in Action
by Josh Crocker
Josh Crocker is a student at Anderson University and served last summer on Seesalt’s program staff. He is heavily involved with BCM, is an excellent keyboardist/singer, and likes to balk tackwards. Please pray for Josh and his group as they’re in Guatemala.