Team decision:
we would give out Christmas gifts to the ladies at our Christmas
party/last meeting of 2013. Though
we haven’t necessarily given gifts in previous years, there was plenty enough
in the cupboard that could be shared with our new friends. So, carefully we made gift packages
which included: a reusable
foldable shopping sack (very popular in Belgium), Clinique cosmetics (thanks to
all those friends and family in US who shared extras when I was home in
August), a couple of colorful red and gold Christmas ornaments, and a tea light
(battery operated variety in order to comply with safety regulations for living
in a refugee center). There was
one more sweet addition to the gift pack:
a metallic bookmark that said in Dutch: “there is a God who loves you”
or “my peace I give to you” or “I will carry you through”.
As I worked on wrapping the packages, I got to thinking
“that’s silly, Barb, to give them a bookmark. Many of these women don’t own a book, and several don’t even
know how to read”. For a moment, I
hesitated and even began to think that I should take the bookmarks out. But then I had this thought: they could use the bookmark as a large
paper clip to hold their important papers together (i.e. immigrant application
papers, birth records, other important documents). Bottom line:
the bookmarks made it into the gift packs.
As we gathered with the ladies, and you can see through the
pictures some of the food and decorations that showed up at the party, we
realized once again how much fun can be had when you put out the word “feestje”
(Dutch for party!) We played a
round of Christmas bingo, where the goal was to get the gals to work on their
Dutch vocabulary (ster, kerstboom, engel, Kerstmis which in English translates:
star, Christmas tree, angel, Christmas).
My favorite memory of this moment in the afternoon: explaining the importance of the star
in the Christmas story.
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| Colorful table with treats from around the world |
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| The table was also laden with color |
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| Christmas colors in our food |
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| Not only Christmas colorful, but healthy too! |
The gift packs were a huge success, no surprise there. Most of our ladies are the moms of the
kids who look forward to getting a Sinterklaas gift on December 6th, (an
important Belgian holiday for children), and now it was their turn to be gifted
and celebrated. And besides, who
doesn’t like a gift?! But more
important than the gifts themselves, my prayer was that the women would sense
the love that celebrates Jesus as the reason for Christmas by our sharing of a few small items to encourage them on their journey. Imagine what the words of those bookmarks mean to someone
who had to flee their homeland because of war, or are so discouraged in the
waiting process that they begin to wonder if anyone even cares.
So now, it’s just time to wait and see where the
conversations go as we continue to journey with these women and with the
opportunities that lie ahead of us to tell them that “there is a God who loves
you!”
