Merry Christmas - 2016 Newsletter

Merry Christmas!   

 🎵I’ll Be Home for Christmas ….. But, only in my dreams….  🎵 This will be our first Christmas in Roatan.  With only a few days until the 25^th, it still is not all that Christmassy here – no snow, no Santas, no Christmas concerts, nowhere to go Christmas shopping. However, we have put up a beautiful Christmas tree we found in the attic, decorated it with some things from home and from here, and added some extra lights.  We have a poinsetta, as well as new Christmas placemats so our house has a minimalist-Christmas look. If you peaked in the freezer, you’d see a turkey waiting to be the roasted guest on our Christmas dinner table. Friends, and Juan will join us for Christmas dinner. So, we are doing it a bit different.  Happily, one of our three chicks, Katee, will join us for a week after Christmas. Hope she’s bringing us some figgy pudding!🎵

Because we’re here through Christmas, I was able to plan a Nativity lesson for the Bible study kids.  I started the lesson by asking the kids - “what is the greatest gift you have ever received?”  You are probably wondering what types of gifts the kids get.  Are you predicting?  I didn’t want to go first, but I was ready to say “my cuckoo clock” if there was a pause in the answers. And then this is what was said:  “the mercy of God”; “one more day of life”; “forgiveness”.  Ack!  Way to get to the punch line without waiting for the lead up, guys! 

What would your answer be?  Would you be waiting to chirp in with “my cuckoo clock” or would you too be sharing about the gift of salvation? “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given….”  Isaiah 9:6  Our response?  “Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!" (Corinthians 9:15) ***That verse always makes me think of that stars twinkling and angels singing.****

We have had a month here and it seems that it has been an event-filled month.  Larry hit the ground running with a special graduation the evening he arrived.  We have encouraged the three girls who graduated from grade 9 for several years, so the evening was a delight!  Jessie honoured us by asking us to be her godparents and escort her into the graduation.  She was so happy that Larry arrived in time. So was he.

 

 Other recent events also included a kindergarten graduation, and a small quincieñera celebrated at our house.  It is always such a joy for us to join the celebrations.

School has been out since the second week in November. No help is needed now for homework.  However, for three mornings a week I have been teaching English.  We have paused for the Christmas break but will resume with a smaller class in the New Year.  And why the smaller class?  Woo-hoo!  Belkis has graduated to the working world!! Belkis is now working at the Roatan Hostel as a cook.  Because she had polished her English during the past year using Rosetta Stone and in lessons, she is considered bilingual.  She has developed such confidence.  I’m really proud of her.  She will tell you that God has continued to bless her family – first the new house, and now a job.  Thank you to all who have prayed for her.  Please continue to pray that she is able to meet the needs of the finicky backpacking tourist.

Larry has had no building projects since arriving other than the constant maintenance required here at our house.  Rainy season is not a time for building.  This is just as well.  Larry has just finished a busy harvest time and can use a bit of down time.  We all know that down time for Larry is different than for most of us.  However, he does fit in the occasional siesta or early-to-bed time. There are also the surprising drop-ins at our gate to provide some variety in the day.

We want to share with you a Christmas miracle.  Really!  We have been exploring the possibilities of ordering Spanish Bibles to have for our teen Bible study as well as for other groups we are involved with.  We weren’t getting it to come together.  A few weeks ago, a new friend pulled up at our gate asking if we needed Bibles.  When asked how he knew, he said “God told me you people need Bibles.” We have asked – those who knew we were looking to get Bibles hadn’t mentioned it to anyone.  So, thank you God.  John provided us with a few cases of Bibles so we were able to present each of the kids in the Bible study who didn’t have a Bible with a new Bible.  Pretty great, isn’t it?! And there will be more opportunities in the new year.

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We have a special request for prayer at this time.  It is for a little two year-old girl named Jimena.  Shortly after we arrived we were involved in her emergency trip to a hospital in Tegucigalpa with a situation that was “muy grave”.  Jimena is currently undergoing treatment for leukemia.  While the family tells us she is “a little better” we know that this little one will need the Healer’s touch.  Please also pray for Jimena’s mom, Sandra, who has been living in the hospital with her daughter for the past month and will continue for as long as the treatment continues.

With this newsletter we are sending another request – if you are able.  Send us a note and a picture of your family at Christmas or together sometime this year.  We would be delighted to participate a bit in a home Christmas and your home would be great!

Prayer requests for this month include:

-         - Jimena, as mentioned above;

-         - for Belkis’ work to continue and for her to have success in this

-          -for our teen kids in the Bible study that they continue to recognize Jesus as their greatest gift                                      - that we respond with compassion and wisdom to the people at our gate

As we send this, we want to wish each of you joy this Christmas.  Go to church and sing the carols for us. Drive the streets to view the Christmas lights.  And open your hearts to the greatest gift you have been offered – Jesus. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!  JOY and LOVE!  

Larry and Susan 

Pictures from some of our Christmas activities.

 

                                                                                                                               

 

Navidad-ing a Different Way 2016

It was the year to do it different.  And so we did.  We traded our White Christmas for the vibrant greens of our palms and other lush foliage, the brilliant blues of the sky and ocean, and the whites? That would be the sand on the beach the week before Christmas.




What is Christmas like in Roatan?  It is different for native Hondurans and those of us who have adopted this country.  For us, we could modify many of our regular traditions. We had a beautiful, artificial evergreen tree with ornaments we had brought with us and items we were able to buy here. 

 We hosted friends for a turkey dinner with all of the regular trimmings on Christmas day.  Our local grocery store had imported frozen butterball turkeys at a price just a bit more than we would pay in Canada. Somehow Santa managed to find our house, and fill our stockings, and we had presents to exchange. 

But, we did identify some real differences between our celebrations and the Spanish Hondurans we serve in the Colonia.  

 1.  The biggest difference?  Navidad is celebrated on December 24!  Many people work until noon on the 24th, and then start putting things together for the celebration that moves into full swing in the evening.                                                                                                                            2.  Navidad is not celebrated all month long.  Some people decorate artificial trees earlier in the month, but most do not have trees (evergreens really look out of place here and the cost is quite prohibitive)  One of our students, Jessie, spent lots of time decorating at her house during the weeks leading up to Christmas.                                                                                         3.  Parents give clothing for presents to their children - not many toys are seen in the houses. The new items are worn for Christmas celebrating. We went to church in the Colonia for Navidad (our Christmas Eve) and sat surrounded by a group of preteen boys. I was giggling to myself as I watched the boys preening - straightening their shirt collars, tucking their pant cuffs into their new hi-top shoes, and brushing off flecks of mud that had gotten on their shoes from their walk down the muddy roads.  They were peacocks!  Then they checked to see if they were noticed by the girls who were fussing over their party skirts and tottering around in their new four-inch heeled shoes.  Some things are universal!

4.  Navidad in Honduras focuses on three F's.  The first of these is FAMILY. Several of the people we know are not here on Roatan for Christmas. This is because they have been able to save, or borrow money to travel to visit family on the mainland. The stay can last a month or more.

5.  Navidad celebrations are in the evening of December 24th and extend loooooong into the night. Extended families may gather, or just individual families. The second F of Navidad is FOOD. Oscar and Maria's family enjoyed a traditional feast of tamales, cake and sandwiches. (really! Sandwiches are a treat reserved for celebrations). Tamales here are made with a dough of flour, broth, veggies and chicken rolled into a banana leaf package and boiled/steamed for awhile.  The banana leaf is removed leaving you with a tamal. Juan treated us to tamales he had purchased in Coxen Hole.

Oscar sent a picture of tamales cooking.
His contribution to the food prep - taking the pictures.

6.  The other F of Navidad celebrating is FIREWORKS!  Throughout December, the regular sounds of the late afternoon and evening are punctuated with "Pop, Pop, Pop."  These little crackers are really cheap, selling in any pulperia with a cost of about 50 cents for 25 poppers.  You don't need an Advent calendar here - you can tell how close we are to Navidad by the frequency of the pops. One Bible study evening we knew the kids - Carlos - was at the gate because of the loud pop just outside the gate. His sister, Karla, had a few packages in her purse.  

For Navidad, the whole Colonia erupted in noisy popping. Most of the fireworks are for your ears - lots of popping.  However, as the evening continued, impromptu displays occurred with the grandest display happening in several open-ish places at midnight. (This display was repeated even more spectacularly at midnight on New Year's Eve - incredible!)

Feliz Navidad! Family, Food, and Fireworks! 

Happily, we did have opportunities to share our Christmas traditions with our kids with a few special activities.  We enjoyed an afternoon of games and food together. Another afternoon, the kids came to make Christmas crafts.  We studied Jesus' coming at our Bible study, and enjoyed the movie Elf - with popcorn.  Just before Christmas, Juan and I delivered a food bag to a family.  It included two foods requested by the kids - sandwiches and cake (cupcakes) as well as little princess gifts and a children's Bible which the oldest of the girls can read to her siblings. 

If someone from Roatan was to visit our home down-on-the-farm, I wonder what differences he or she would note in our celebrations?  For me, here, we thoroughly enjoyed celebrating the differences and participating as we chose. We missed being home and being enveloped in the traditions that are Christmas for us for sure. 

In navigating the differences here however, we missed something else. The Christmas "season" produces an emotional response. We call it the Christmas spirit - that seasonal concern for others. Somehow, this was not evident. We cheered for a local group headed by an island woman and her army of volunteers who continue year after year to bring Christmas to children in various outlying communities in Roatan. The local TV/Internet business provided a treat for people living and working at the dump.  But, in general, we missed that heart-response to Christmas resulting in those little, spontaneous, loving acts that makes Christmas a gentler time. I was wishing the music floating through the air was Christmas carols. (Spanish Christmas carols are called villancicos but we only heard those at church on Christmas Eve.)

The rush and bustle and push was the same rush and bustle and push we experience at any time. Having limited experience with only our own community, and this being our first Christmas here, I'm not sure if this is a cultural or society thing. But, we know that what we do at Christmas, or anytime here, is needed.  We need to provide that example and also include many in doing this. We need to remind any that will listen that Jesus is why we celebrate at anytime.  Feliz Navidad! Happy day of His birth!

Community of Faith Church
Christmas Choir