I was HOT and SWEATY!  Being from Iow@ and living in Minnes0ta for a few years these are two words that I never thought I would use to describe Christmas however this year it was just that.  Upon waking at 6am the temp was 86 degrees and at 4pm the temperature gauge registered 97 degrees with 97% humidity…CRAZY!  I have always looked forward to a white Christmas, needless to say that didn’t happen, which caused me to miss the snow for a brief fleeting moment.  I am kind of getting use to being able to wear flip flops all year round!

For the holiday I was in a small village located along the coast of the Indi@n Ocean (I have now seen it many times and have yet to get me feet wet!).  The team of A1M missi0naries located there is made up of two couples and three single ladies.  Two of these single ladies were in my same situation – first Christmas away from family, so we knew exactly how each other was feeling.  I was sad to be away from my family however G0d provided wonderful people – both w@zungus (westerners) and nationals who made this Christmas truly unique and filled with laughter.

The festivities began on the 24^th.  At around 12 noon (which in Africa time is really anytime after 2pm) all the women were to gather at the church to start preparing the community lunch meal.  This is a very important event because technically if the wife dose not come and help prepare the meal her family is unable to partake.  Our meeting place was under the big mango tree by the church.  We sat outside on large hand woven grass mats and got right to work cleaning 80kgs rice (removing rocks and left over hulls), peeling garlic and onions, cutting up the beef that was purchased (which in the end looked to me to be mostly bone!  Iowa corn feed means nothing here), and making dough for mendazies (a small donut like bun that is eaten with tea).  The national ladies were very eager to teach us all their ways of cooking and preparation.  We shared MANY good laughs together!  The whole preparation took about 4 hours, but to me it seemed but a few minutes!  I enjoyed this time of fellowship very much!  Being able to sit with the national ladies, listen to them girl talk and learn their customs was such a blessing.

Christmas morning we were up and ready to go to the church by 6:30am!  Yes, this was early but around the time I had been waking up every morning due to the heat.  Once at the church there was still work to be done, peeling tomatoes and carrots, chopping cabbage to make cole slaw, boiling the tea, cooking all the rice and mixing in the spices to make pilau, reheating the beef and collecting the plates and trays that all the ladies were bringing in for the meal.  At first I was wondering, how was this ever going to get organized, however within about 30 minutes each women had a task to complete.  My task was to clean a little more rice and then help cook…which really means to just sit and talk with the nationals as they cook!!  One thing I noticed that kind of made me laugh is when the women were cooking the rice they would throw in a bit of salt here and there.  Every time they added it to the rice, they threw a little in the fire, “to help it cooked sweeter”.  I guess every cook has her thing!

The rice was cooked in HUGE metal pots called sufuri@s over open fires in the backyard of the church.  I think all total there were 8 sufuri@s filled with pilau and one with the beef…an impressive operation to watch!  The women know just how strong the fires have to be at different points in the cooking process to make the perfect rice.  Heck, I can barely cook a good pot of rice on my gas stove, if I had to use a fire I would be in trouble or I would eat burnt rice! HA!

About 10:30am it was time to get cleaned up and go to church.  The Christi@n ladies from the church all had dresses made out of the same material, this is tradition for any type of big event.  When I was in K@hunda I had a” skirti” and “blousie” made (for a grand total of $11 USD) from local fabric so that is what I wore and how the ladies loved it!  They appreciated so much that I was wearing a T@nzania outfit; the smiles it evoked were priceless!  Also jewelry, make-up and pretty shoes were required.  The women really did go all out and the men, just regular clothing for them.

Church only lasted for 2 hours which SURPRISED me!  I was at least expecting four hours at the minimum…the pastor must have known he would have been in trouble from the women if he went to long! HA!  They sang, danced and played the drum for a good while, nothing fancy but very beautiful!  Unfortunately the service was given in the local tribal tongue so I was not able to understand it at all…but I am sure it was good!  On a regular Sund@y the average attendance of this church is 30 people, this service 100 people came, some of who were MuSlims!  G0D IS AWESOME!!  I spent my time trying to interrupt L*ke chapter two from Sw@hili to English, what a wonderful story.  My Savi0r came to earth that very night to die so that I can live forever…WOW!

When the pastor finally said we were dismissed the church cleared out SO FAST!  People were ready to eat.  The older men all sat in the big room on woven grass mats and were served first on individual plates.  The women and children sat in another room some on grass mats some on the floor and were served second on platters (4-5 people sharing) and the teenage boys sat together in the last room on the floor and were served last.  There was a definite process that was followed and everyone understood it!  To get everyone fed including the “kitchen staff” took over an hour.  One person estimated that around 250 people came to partake in the meal.  What a witness for Je$us!

I enjoyed very much being part of the village church Christmas.  I like how they focused on serving together as a family in Chri$t to reach out to their community.  It was not so much about “stuff” which was nice. I have not missed the craziness of Christmas shopping.  I do love giving gifts to people in my life, but December in the States NO FUN!  This village church gave the Good New to MANY in their community who needed to hear it…the harvest might be a long time coming, but seeds were planted and I was honored to be a part of it!

The weekend following Christmas we W@zungus (westerners) went to town to celebrate.  We had a Christmas branch (just on branch not a complete tree) decorated, white elephant gift exchange (I was the only one who bought a gag gift…however in the end was the gift everyone wanted!) and did a stocking exchange, so nothing big but very nice.  Also we ATE!  We had all kinds of Americ@n/Can@dian food.  I actually had the “I’m so full I can barely move feeling” and it has been a long time since I can say I experienced that!

Overall, I would describe my first Christmas in Afric@ as BLESSED!  I was with people that I had only met briefly at conference in October and in a village I had never visited, however we all have one common goal: To share the $AVING GR@CE of JE$US with the people of Tanzania and that bond makes us brothers and sisters in Christ.  THANK YOU JE$US for Your strength and provision!!