More Adventures of Wayward Missionaries: Is it too late to send a Christmas letter?

Well, it’s time for another newsletter, and since we didn’t manage to get anything “Christmasy” out at Christmas, we thought we’d ignore the fact that it’s already almost February and just tell you about how our holidays went anyway! 🙂

And so, as we talk about this last Christmas, we feel we should start in the same place that we know many of you start in, which is the renewed resolve we experience every mid-November to “make this year different” – that is not to allow our blood pressure to rise an average of 20 points (as it has every other year) in our efforts to “do” all of our “Christmas” things on top of our already busy schedules.

Yet even in spite of all of our fervent promises to ourselves every year to focus on the real meaning of the season, we have to admit that we would still always cringe inwardly at the word “Christmas,” since for us it usually meant trying to find gifts in Torreon for a bunch of Americans who already “have” everything, including all of the souvenirs sold in the tourist shops in Torreon (except for a few t-shirts which say “I got drunk in Torreon” on them). Christmas also means spending up to 7 hours to get across the border (due to crowds), driving across Texas at some odd hour of the night, and trying to balance visits to churches and friends along with 6 months of U.S. paperwork, visiting both families in the space of exactly 2 weeks, and driving back across the border to arrive home at 2 in the morning, unload, fall into bed, and immediately resume ministry and job activities the next day! 🙂

So needless to say, we were bound and determined that this year things were going to have to be different. One advantage we had was that we couldn’t buy gifts, since we had already sold our truck and would be having to travel home by bus. In a moment of divine inspiration, we decided to do charitable acts in the names of our family members for some of the people with needs here. That way, we could bring back pictures to show our families what we had done in lieu of presents. It seemed like our only viable option, since we knew we would be stepping off the bus on Christmas Eve directly into the arms of relatives who were eager to “have” Christmas with us. (We wanted to have something to give them, since no matter what people say it always does feel really silly to get a bunch of gifts from them without having anything to give back!)

So, to make a long story short, we had the really fun excuse of “having” to do extra charitable acts this Christmas, and we’re happy to say that it was the key to making this year truly “different.” We got to do all sorts of interesting things, like …

• buying a couple pairs of shoes for little girls who will probably never own new shoes again in their life.
• matching up “prayer partners” for people in our families as gifts, which will allow them to be involved in the lives of kids like “Heriberto,” who has had trouble sleeping since he was held at gunpoint by the drug lords warring for his neighborhood.

But probably the most amazing moment of our Christmas season was giving some gifts to “Jani” (pronounced like “Honey”), a single mother who had been struggling for some time with uterine cancer. Jani is actually part of Nina’s family, or rather her husband’s family, and we got to know her through them. (For those of you who remember Nina, we know we owe you more on that story! For now please do trust us when we say that this family is slowly but surely coming to Christ. 🙂 )

Anyway, we should probably also tell you that we and members of our home group had already prayed for Jani before and that she had actually recovered considerably from her cancer. The only problem was that another lump had developed on her shoulder. It had started out small and been growing rather quickly, covering most of her shoulder area and even protruding into her neck. Jani was afraid to go back to the doctor because she hated being in the hospital for treatments, so the conversation on our visit focused mainly on convincing her to go. But as family members there continued to speculate among themselves about whether the lump would turn out to be cancer, Kim suddenly heard herself saying, “It doesn’t really matter if it’s cancer from God’s perspective. He is able to heal Jani from anything if He wants to!” And when the whole room stopped and stared at her (they were mainly new Christians) Kim realized she had to do something other than just slap her palm to her forehead and wail “Why did I have to go and say that?!”

So, since all her faith had gone to her feet (along with her blood), she glanced desperately around the room for someone to help her to pray. Larry was at home (the little scamp!) and so there was no one else there crazy enough to volunteer to pray with her. Suddenly, Kim’s gaze rested on Leonel, Jani’s 8-year old nephew. Ironically, Leonel was one of the “older” Christians in the room. He had been attending church and homegroup for over a year, and always showed marked interest in the things of God. “Aha!,” Kim thought, “the faith of a child.” This might actually work after all.

So, after what seemed like years of prompting, Leonel finally climbed up on his aunt’s bed and put his little hand on Jani’s enormous lump. Kim stood back and prayed a simple prayer, declaring God’s sovereignty over cancer. When she was just about done she noticed that Jani was sweating quite a bit and tightly grasping the small hand on her shoulder. When she straightened up after the prayer, Jani had a surprised look on her face. “I just felt something totally pop in there!” she said.

While Leonel innocently climbed down and people around started to speculate anew about what the lump had actually been and what had just happened, Kim finally caught her breath enough to say “Whatever it was and whatever happened, it happened because of God’s power.” Now this explanation was not as eloquent as she would have liked, but most people in the room seemed to understand it, so Kim was able to say good-bye to people gracefully enough before she went home – marveling at what had happened, breathing a big sigh of relief, and promising God never to open her big mouth so quickly again! 🙂

So, in reflecting upon our “Christmas presents” this year, we do think Jani’s gift was the best one. We did not give it, but God did, and what better gift could there be than a touch of His Spirit through the hand of a child? Certainly, it is reminiscent of a much greater gift He gave years ago, also granting a touch of His hand on this world through none other than a child, in that case a child who would one day be our Savior.

So, in conclusion, praise God with us. He truly answered our prayers this past Christmas, even the one about making the holiday season “different!” May Christmas continue to have fresh meaning in your heart, as you “recover” from the holidays and throughout the whole year long!