Tuesday, December 24 – Christmas Eve

As the time for our departure grows closer, I’m finding myself wanting to make my chaotic surroundings more peaceful and comfortable by preparing lots of nice meals and snacks for my family. I know too well the dangers of finding comfort in food instead of finding comfort in my God who never changes. I also feel the desire to hide in the house instead of investing in my community. But I anticipated both of these unhealthy behaviors, so I have people praying for me to find a good balance of acknowledging that this is a hard time while still making sure I do the things I need to do.

Olivia continues to amaze me with her strength and energy. Last night, she was practicing dances until 2 a.m. in preparation for Christmas. Today, she and Katherine worked with the rest of the young people (wow, it makes me feel old to write that!) in decorating the church for tonight’s service.

Finding coconut branches, fashioning them into the right shape, collecting flowers, inserting the flowers into the coconut branches, shredding some of the coconut branches to make a fringe...all of these things take time. During the hours that the girls spent working outside, Aaron and I stayed at the house and sorted and packed in preparation for loading the sailboat on Friday.

While we were working, Aaron heard Ezekiel’s voice, and sure enough, up the hill came Ezekiel with his wife, Janet, close behind. They were bringing us a Christmas present of two fish because it’s important that you have fish to eat for Christmas. Giving gifts isn’t a custom here, so we were touched that they gave us something so precious. The fish went into a soup of coconut milk, pumpkin greens, and umalau/potato, that we ate between Evening Prayer and the Christmas Eve service. While we ate, we looked at old pictures and reminded each other of God’s faithfulness and goodness in our lives over the last several years.

Our District Priest started at one end of our church district and led communion service after communion service, all night long. Our service began around 10 and finished up just before midnight. We were thankful that we were number three on his list! After the service, Olivia and the choir sang Christmas carols around the village for small gifts. We contributed two jars of unpopped popcorn, but we didn’t stick around to hear them sing. We crashed in bed, knowing that the bell for the Christmas morning service would ring early.