Advent

It wasn’t until I moved to Togo that I really began to love the Christmas season. My Canadian roommate and I bought lots of tinsel and Christmas lights and decorated our small dorm room. I looked forward to each night sitting in my lower bunk bed reflecting on the coming Christ with the glowing lights around me.

When Kossi and I got married and had our first Christmas together, it was full on. I had my own kitchen and boy was I going to bake up a Christmas storm. Some friends from the YWAM base came and we baked a bunch of cookies. On Christmas Eve the power went off, and it was miserably hot. I was in my second trimester and miserable. We jumped on our motorcycle and drove around town delivering cookies. Some for the ladies that worked at the local tiny grocery store, and the rest for different friends. The next day I brought cookies to the lady who always sliced my cheese and ham at the grocery store in town. On Christmas morning we celebrated with friends and cinnamon rolls. We were to move to Malawi in a few weeks, so Kossi and I only bought eachother one or two small things. It was a simple yet beatutiful Christmas.

From there I always wanted to get back in the Christmas spirit, but it was a challenge with babies. I didn’t have all the free hours to sit under the glow of Christmas lights reading my Bible and reflecting on advent. I caught moments here and there that I enjoyed, but it was never the same.

As missionaries, we always fantasize what Christmas would be like back “home”. After six Christmases in Africa, I finally was going to be in the US for Christmas. I couldn’t wait to go to a Christmas service, to see Christmas lights and share all the joy with our children… We hit a deer on the way to go look for Christmas lights, and we didn’t attend the Christmas service because there was an influx of covid cases, and we didn’t want to risk a positive test when we were leaving Dec 31. I also didn’t get much time to myself because I loved getting to have coffee in the morning with my mom and dad.

And here we are, 2022. The kids are older and are beginning to understand bigger concepts and have longer attention spans. While we have small Christmas traditions here and there, I really wanted to start setting traditions for our family. I found an Advent guide that I loved.

As I’ve done the advent guide with the children and my own personal advent devotional, I’ve felt this sense of restoration in humanity as I’ve reflected on St. Nicholas and his conviction to serve the poor. Sometimes my heart becomes callused with the complexity of enabling and creating dependency, or focusing on the change I don’t see. But this Advent, my heart feels this flicker of hope, this glimmering reminder that we don’t need to change the world; our actions just need to show others that Jesus is the Messiah, and that He loves them.

I read something recently about how we should feel angst during this Christmas season. We should have this wrestle and anticipation for the coming King. I’ve never been able to relate to that before, but this year I do. While I have had moments of tranquility while baking cinnamon rolls with the kids, in the last two days I have felt angst over the returning fuel and electricity crisis that Malawi continuously faces. Our friend Matt, who is a short term worker in Malawi, is in the hospital with severe Malaria. We are entering rainy season, which brings life to crops but can also damage and wipe out villages, and cause our water supply to be cut off for days at a time. I am reminded that earth is not our home. The worries that come with the fuel and electricity crisis push me to embrace the thing that matters the most; our coming King, family and community. The angst I feel is the angst and longing for our Creator to come and save us all.

Today as I worried about whether Kossi would be able to drive to the village 2.5 hours away for Extending Hope Organization’s Christmas Eve event for the widows and orphans, and frustrated that the event date kept changing…I am forced to simplify-we can do what we can do, and that is that.

And that is where we are, in an imperfect world, where we don’t have all the Christmas books I wish we had, or the red and green food colouring and sprinkles for sugar cookies, but we have been able to steer our children towards knowing the sweetness of Jesus. We have gathered around our advent candles to read the Word and to talk about the anticipation of our Savior. This advent season has been a time to really focus on teaching our children about Jesus and the life he called us to live, and for that I am grateful.

(Here is the advent guide we are using! https://www.littlewaychapel.com/printables/advent-guide)