Christmas in Thailand

I don't know if it's the heat or lack of Christmas traditions in Thailand, but sometimes it's hard to get into the "Christmas spirit" here. But then I have to ask myself, "Am I just looking for Christmas decorations and music, or am thinking about Jesus' birth?" There's actually not an absence of Christmas decorations or Christmas music in Thailand. There is an absence of nativity scenes and recognition of Jesus' birth as the reason for the celebration though.

Thai Christians have challenged me when it comes to the meaning of Christmas. Christmas isn't an official holiday here, so most people go to work and/or school on Christmas. Still, Christians make it a point to evangelize at Christmas. Most Thai people know about Santa Claus and the reindeer, but they don't know the real reason for celebrating Christmas. It's a great starting point for sharing the Gospel. Our church and mission team put together many evangelistic events and I want to share a few of the highlights.

We put together a Christmas fair to invite people from the community to come to the church. The most popular things were the yard sale, games for kids and free food. We've had one girl who came to the fair start coming to our English classes.

We also taught our elementary school English students to sing Christmas songs in English. They invited their parents to a special presentation. After the kids sang, we explained why we celebrate Christmas and then gave the kids Christmas gifts. And what Christmas celebration would be complete without food? We had a few other events as well. I pray that the people who came to our events experienced the true Light of Christmas.

4th of July...Thai style

When you love outside the US, you've got to find a way to celebrate American holidays, right? If I go through the day knowing that my friends and family at home are celebrating and I'm not, I'll be sad all day. So why not introduce my Thai friends to American celebrations? Everyone likes parties.

This is why I decided to throw a 4th of July party for my English students. They got very involved...they helped decorate and even wore red, white and blue clothes like I asked them to. We ate lots of food (it was all American, but not exactly 4th of July fare...but the Thais didn't know the difference). I did go out of my way to make apple pie though. It was my pie making debut (everything from scratch, even the crust). Not too bad for my first time. We played some games and sang a song. After that, I presented a brief explanation of why we celebrate the holiday and then used the opportunity to share a little bit about the Lord. I explained that while most people think America is a Christian nation, not every American is a Christian. This is important because many people from non-Western countries think that all Americans are Christians, therefore every tourist, American movie and American song represents Christianity in their minds. I also explained that Christianity isn't an American or European belief. Some of them were surprised when I said that Christianity comes from Asia (Jesus was Jewish, not American:). We had a great time together. Parties and events like this one are great ways to build relationships with our students and introduce them to our Savior and Hope.