Christmas Celebrations
How do the projects we support celebrate Christmas? Two project workers share how they bring Christmas joy to two very different countries
Christmas in Costa Rica
In Talamanca, on the Saturday morning, we had around 120 people attend the program for kids, including many adults.
We started with some games, then the kids enjoyed a Christmas play called: ‘the best gift’. We explained that we are often so focused on gifts with Christmas – big gifts, special gifts, expensive gifts – but what is more important? The most important gift is that God brought His son to life! We celebrate that Jesus was born at Christmas and that He is the Savior of the world. He has the best gift for us: eternal life with Him.
Happy faces
After the story we played with some confetti guns and they lined up to receive shoes that had been donated by a shoe company. We then gave them bags of candy, fruit, a coloring book and a gift. When all the kids had received, we gave the parents a nice pair of shoes each, a candy bag and a fruit bag. Everybody left with happy faces.
On the Sunday evening we had a Christmas service and lots of people from local villages came to celebrate Christmas together. We sang songs, listened to a preacher and at the end we all eat Tamales together. This is a traditional meal for Christmas in Costa Rica. After we’d eaten we went outside to watch the fireworks.
Hungry for God
At the end, a woman came up to me and told me that she wanted to know more about Jesus. She was raised in the Catholic church but she said she doesn't believe these things anymore but know she wants to know more about the truth of Jesus! Wow. It’s so great to see how hungry people are for God.
We are looking forward to all God is going to do in 2017! A lot of light is to come.
Merry Christmas and a beautiful and blessed 2017 from all of us in Talamanca, Costa Rica
Christmas in Moldova
In Moldova, The Freedom Challenge supports several Day Centers in villages and towns throughout the country. These centers provide vulnerable children with a hot meal every day and contribute to their spiritual and educational needs.
The Christmas Caravan project allows us to visit some of these centers with a special Christmas program sharing the good news about Jesus’ birth in a creative way.
Excited children
At each of the centers the children were very excited to see us and enjoyed singing a song accompanied by the puppets, learning the memory verse and watching a puppet drama about a King who didn’t believe in celebrating Christmas, with a fun quiz afterwards. The children also received a special Christmas gift.
Battling through snow
On the last day of the caravan the team of eight trudged, two kilometers up four hills covered in deep snow, with equipment, to deliver a program to the children waiting expectantly in the village of Huzun.
God blessed the dedication and determination of the team with the enthusiasm and delight of the children.
Bringing joy
One of the team members said: “The caravan brings joy to children who have little joy or hope in their lives and in this way their hearts are opened to receive the Word of God both now and in the future when they are older.”
Merry Christmas to all our supporters from the team in Moldova.