A 4-Christmas Season!

Central Asia has held given us some unexpected surprises! We came with expectations, as does anyone who moves into a new culture. Some of those expectations were absolutely “off the wall” and are, for the most part, long forgotten. Some expectations were logical and have been realized, like finding wonderful people. There have been some things that have surprised us – we never expected them. Here’s one.

Even though we did some reading about the area before we left the States, it didn’t sink in that we would find two Christmases here. The predominant Christian church, Russian Orthodox, celebrates Christmas on January 7th. We learned about that after we arrived and were planning our schedule accordingly. As we spoke to some of the believers we work with, they told us, since they are not Orthodox, they celebrate Christmas on December 25th. We asked whether they celebrated the Orthodox Christmas (a national holiday) as well. Their answer, “Of course! Why not?” came as a bit of a surprise. Well, when in Central Asia, do as the Central Asians do. We began to look forward to two Christmases.

December 25th came and went. There were decorations in the city for Christmas in December – more than ever before. (Our partner told us that the level of awareness of Christmas in December is increasing in the last few years, though, many of the decorations are for the HUGE New Year’s celebration.) Suzanne put up a few homemade decorations in our flat and we celebrated Christmas Eve with our friends. We had a great dinner at their home and attended the International Fellowship’s Christmas Eve service. Suzanne and I spent Christmas day together and celebrated with a dinner of “Sweet & Sour Spam.” It was good! Life in the city went on as normal: schools were in session, businesses were open and people went about their normal routines.

When January 7th came around, though a “public holiday,” it didn’t appear any different than a regular day. We had a pastors meeting and businesses seemed open as normal. After our meeting, Suzanne and I had a quiet dinner and evening together. We thought Christmas 2008 (and 2009?) was over. We hadn’t thought it through.

We traveled to another part of the country in the middle of January to work with some pastors. (See our Christmas newsletter and the February 6th blog entry, “How Are You?”) Upon our return, we discovered two boxes had arrived from our son’s family including Christmas presents! So, we had another “Christmas” on January 24th!
We knew that our daughter had sent something to us for Christmas on December 6th and another just after Christmas. We had not seen or heard about either of them. We thought about them periodically and felt badly for her expense for the lost packages. WELL, this week they arrived! On February 19th we had our FOURTH Christmas when we got to open more Christmas presents!

We do feel blessed to be cared about and supported. The people, family and friends, at home have been wonderful in sending notes, emails and packages. All the stuff is appreciated and the people are loved. Thank you. (By the way, we’re beginning to look at heading home in just a few months and don’t need anything more.)