Friday, 22 December 2006
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Feliz Navidad
¡Feliz Navidad! That translates “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Christmas”. Navidad is shortened from “natividad,” which refers to the nativity, or birth, of Jesus. (A little research just revealed that the Roman Catholic Church also celebrates the natividad of the Virgin Mary and of John the Baptist.) It’s been interesting to find that nativity scenes here include Mary, Joseph, the baby, the shepherds and a few animals, the kings, and there’s also a corner of them devoted to demons. Maybe the makers are trying not to get on anyone’s bad side.
Navidad can mean just Christmas Day, or it can mean the whole season, extending to the Día de los Reyes (Day of the Kings), which is January 6th. That’s the traditional day for presents.
Providentially, January 6th is the first Saturday in January, and we have our club in the San Felipe area on the first Saturday of each month. We’ve been planning to end the Bible club session on that day with the distribution of 700 boxes of presents, obtained through the Samaritan’s Purse organization. Last year the boxes were held up at the border until March.
However, last night, at 6:15 p.m., I got a phone call telling me that the boxes had arrived, and that we were scheduled to pick them up at 7:00 p.m. I said, “In 45 minutes?” and the gentleman replied, “That’s right.” I called Enrique and Efraín, who were waiting to help with it, they called others, and by God’s grace we had all 1200 picked up within a couple of hours. The other 500 are for Maranatha Church and for the area of the mission Jesús el Buen Pastor. When another trailer gets here, we’re on a list to get about 200 more, especially considering that last month we expected about 250 in total (adults and kids) and double that number came.
Standing out there last night, chatting with other guys who were there to pick up boxes, I was struck with how right this all feels, knowing the Lord made me to be doing just this. This morning, as I was about to cross the back yard, I waited before opening the door to watch some sparrows that were feeding on the back lawn, and reflected on our Heavenly Father’s care for us. This morning I”ve been working without glasses at the computer, and giving thanks that the Lord has given me reasonably good vision now, after over 55 years of helplessness without glasses. God has sovereignly chosen to be incredibly gracious to me in so many things, large and small. O for grace to praise Him more.
A few days ago I walked for miles and hours through the colonias of Hércules and La Cañada, which extend through a narrow valley. God has not yet given us an entrance there. Last night I was talking to a local guy about it, and he said that he’d investigated the area, that it was the most intensely and obstinately Catholic area in this very traditionally Catholic part of the country. He knew of no gospel witness there. He also mentioned, as I’ve heard from others, that it’s an area of a lot of witchcraft, spiritism, and immorality. Please pray that the Lord will give us an opening there. Jesus did say that He came to save the lost.
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