My Christmas day this year was unlike any I’ve had before. Thorn trees for Christmas trees, brilliant red flowers as decorations, real donkeys, stables and mangers, gifts of rice and beans and church congregations singing worship in rough but beautiful harmony. There was not a Santa in sight. I have to say, it was one of the loveliest Christmas Day’s I can imagine. There is something about Africa that brings the Christmas story to life.
Together with my friend Corinne and her parents I had the privilege of joining some Tanzanian friends for Christmas in a village not so far from where I live. Robert and his family are some of the most hospitable people I have ever met. They see having guests as a huge blessing and don’t even stop to think about the huge blessing that they are to us in return. So many of our Tanzanian friends have so little materially but are so rich in love, family and relationship with God. They truly are some of the richest people I know.
We left home at 7.30am Christmas morning to walk first to church just over an hour away. After a (relatively!) short service, we returned to our friend Robert’s family home and helped to prepare Christmas lunch. I am finally getting my head around cooking Tanzanian style but everything takes a whole lot longer when it’s cooked on little charcoal burners. The funny thing when we’d finished was that to our Tanzanian friends, the food was ‘wazungu’ stylem while to us, we were sure it was ‘African’ style. I guess we found a middle ground! Finally at 4pm we ate a feast of chickens, potatoes, vegetables and rice. Of course there was sodas as well, which is an essential part of any Tanzanian celebration.
Christmas evening was spent with my other Tanzanian ‘family’; the Joshua Foundation team. We ate together and gave secret santa presents. Everyone put in a lot of thought to their secret gift and it was a lovely time together.
Please keep me, our team and our students in your prayers as we head into the New Year and a new term for College. If you would like me to send you the latest newsletter from the Joshua Foundation just flick me an email on joellecbrown@gmail.com and I’ll pass it on. There’s some great info on what’s been happening in all our departments here.
So...to all my friends and family in NZ and elsewhere...Merry Christmas! I hope that you had a blessed and happy time wherever you were and whoever you were with. I miss you all lots!
Be blessed!
x Joelle
