Before I leave

I've been helping the kids prepare for the big Christmas Concert that Elder and Sister James (pictured below) are facilitating. The wonderful thing about this concert, being the very first of its kind, is that it is centered on the reason for Christmas.  Preparing the kids for this concert has been absolutely delightful because we get to talk and tell stories and sing familiar songs.  It's a more interesting subject matter for my classes, and it's just fun.

Christmas is a huge part of our culture as Church members but it isn't the hubbub here that it is in the US and other parts of the world.
Pattica tells me that about 3% of Cambodia is Christian.   The Central Market does some Christmas decorating, and there are some Christmas candies at that supermarket, but it isn't widely celebrated here.  Yaya wanted me to teach the kids The Christmas Story in English.  My mother had emailed me a Christmas book: This is the Star by Joyce Dunbar and Gary Blythe.  It was great to read with the kids.  It is very similar to The Napping House-- you know-- the one that repeats the same phrases and only adds a new line every other page.  It was simple and repetitive, which gave the kids time to familiarize themselves with the words.  After we read the story, we set off to making a little nativity.  At the service project I'd found a lot of little bits of broken clay and oyster shells and sticks and well I figured we could make something.  So we did.
I know that I've come to know Christ infinitely better in working with ICHope and the kids at CICFO, and with that, I tried to make our games and class time geared toward the CHRIST part of Christmas rather than the Holly Jolly, Santa is coming, stockings and presents part of it.  It is easy to do that here in Cambodia; nobody celebrates it, so the culture of Christmas isn't squeezing you into Santa suits.
And you look at the kids here and they are beautiful, and they are smart, and they are kind, and they are important and I hope that they feel their Savior's love for them as well as my own.  And that's how we become ready for Christmas, we allow ourselves to feel His love regardless of our station and situation in life.  And that's all I wanted to do before I left, to sing and read and play and love them all I could.