what did you have for Christmas dinner?

our friends the moreau's wanted to give huge plastic bins of food to families for christmas. paul had remembered a family from when he was here in august and felt like we should find them. after a not-so-easy walk up the Buena Vista hills on christmas eve afternoon, we found the house.

there was a little bit of an awkward silence before one of the 18 or 19 year-old sons shared his heart. he was clearly moved, and shared with us the impact that this gift meant to their family. then his 20 something year-old brother did the same thing.

in this culture, men this age do not share their emotions like this, which told us how much it meant. trying to hide back tears, these young men were showing us that they had no food for christmas eve dinner, nothing for christmas day. no ability to have a special christmas dinner celebration.

could you imagine?

i am convicted. i take so much for granted.

giving gifts to jesus

we debated doing the huge christmas party again this year in buena vista. last year it was awesome, but this year we were hesitant.

in poverty, where kids don't get gifts for christmas, the last thing you want to do is steer them towards the westernized version of christmas - where gifts mean so much. as much as we want to give the kids a gift, there is beauty in the simplicity of celebrating the birth of Christ without needing gifts.

so we didn't do a big fundraiser for the party like we did last year. a few weeks before christmas, we were worshiping with our friends at Journey in Jacksonville, when my buddy Vic shared a thought. imagine if it was your birthday and all your friends came over. they acknowledge it's your birthday ("happy birthday!"), but then they all begin opening gifts for themselves as they celebrate your birthday. as Vic put it, "that would be pretty jacked up."

the passages of study that day were the many in scripture that show jesus represented in the poor. according to God's word, when we help the poor, we help Jesus. when we give to the poor, we give to Jesus. when we reach out to the "least of these" - in them we find Jesus. he closed with a challenge to give gifts to Jesus this year. in celebrating His birthday, give something to those in need - give to Him.

with that, the party was on. we decided to forgo buying gifts for each other, and instead finance the 2009 buena vista christmas party. it was wonderful. every single kid walked away with a gift and a cookie. the kids were much calmer than usual (when we do other types of distributions), and the entire event ran smoothly. we prayed that God would protect their hearts from the silly correlation between "Christmas" and "presents." we asked God to receive the glory as each young child smiled and received his or her gift. i believe fully that He did.

working with 6:8

helping 6:8 ministries with mission teams has been such a blessing. today is the last day with a group of college kids with converge, a ministry headed up in jacksonville by our friends anthony and danae widener. 14 of their students were able to raise the money to come spend a week with us in guatemala. not only that - they were also able to raise the funds to build a home for a family. during this past week we were able to meet the family. it was a special moment as we all circled together around the family inside their cornstalk home and prayed for them. some prayed for blessings on the family, others praising God for the opportunity to help them...

but one prayer struck me. i don't know who prayed it - i didn't open my eyes. but one of the students fighting back tears simply said "God, please forgive me... forgive me for my lifestyle. forgive me for living the way i do." it was a wonderful and honest reaction to the situation.

its a privilege to be partnered with a ministry that is determined to change the hearts of those inside the american church. i cannot think of a better way to do it.

the beautiful letdown

today we did a shoe distribution out of the community center in Buena Vista. the beautiful: more than 500 pairs of shoes were distributed to people who needed them - many of which were waiting in line barefoot. the letdown: many of those in line, including families we have been friends with for more than a year, pushed, cut in line, and cheated. some went as far to hide their kids or disguise themselves to get through the line a second time.

in a song by switchfoot called the beautiful letdown, the songwriter speaks of how being letdown by the world and all it has to offer is, in reality, a beautiful thing. as kerrie and i unwound from the emotionally draining afternoon, we felt beautifully letdown as well. the letdown was obvious... relationships we are working on, people we have built homes for, etc... so disappointing to see them behave like this. but the beautiful part is more difficult to explain. for us it was a beautiful reminder of a certain reality. the reality that while poverty can at times illuminate simple beauties - family, community, dependence on God - it can also bring out the worst in people. poverty is painful. it causes people to do wrong in order to get what they need. remember the prayer in proverbs 30? "do not give me too much, for i may forget you... do not give me too little, for i may steal and dishonor you" (paraphrase).

today we were reminded of some of the ugliness of poverty. we were reminded why the heart of our ministry is relational, and why we need to be prepared to be here for the long-haul. deep change takes time. i pray God may help us show Jesus to these people. and when "gold and silver we have none", may we be able to give them what we do have - Jesus. (Acts 3:1-10)