A lot of planning went into the Christmas celebration. We spent all
of November practicing for our program. Me and Terra made a couple day trips into town to buy the Christmas presents for all 130 of our children. We had amazing donators who wanted to make sure our children's Christmas was very special, so me and Terra were able to buy one thing off of our children's Christmas lists. We were able to buy each child a jacket (if they put jacket on their list, some put school shoes, and some put sweatpants) a beanie, gloves, school socks, underwear, and two little toys each.
Two days before our Christmas celebration me and Terra locked ourselves in my room and began wrapping presents. We were in there all day wrapping. We didn't even stop to eat lunch :) Noah, Boon Choi, and Teep would pop in and out and help us wrap when they had time. My room was a disaster. Full of gifts, wrapping paper, trash, and bags. I guess I didn't realize how much went into wrapping 130 packages. It was a blast!! I had so much fun wrapping it all because I knew how special it was going to be for our children!
The night before our celebration me and the kids were up decorating our worship hall. We had so much fun putting up our signs, streamers, decorating our Christmas tree, and cleaning for our Christmas celebration.



I finally got into my room and was ready for bed. I could hardly sleep because I was so excited to see our children's faces as they opened up their Christmas presents.
We told the children we were going to have our Christmas celebration at 6:00 a.m. They were all up way before then, but we kept them waiting in anticipation. As they waited, their eyes lit up as we began to bring the Christmas presents out and put them under our Christmas tree on the stage. There were so many Christmas presents. It looked awesome!!
Me, Terra, and all the staff were ready to start our celebration with our Christmas hats on. Me and Terra bought Christmas hats with lights on them. We all looked so cute!!
Our morning started with worship and singing Christmas Carols. Then Pastor preached about the meaning of Christmas. Then it was time to open up the Christmas presents. We let the staff open their gifts first and we had everyone watch them. It was funny! Then we gave the gifts to our children. We called each of their names, because each package was labeled with their name, making it more their gift. We made the children wait to open their gifts until everyone had their gift, then we counted to 3 and the room went crazy!!
Our morning started with worship and singing Christmas Carols. Then Pastor preached about the meaning of Christmas. Then it was time to open up the Christmas presents. We let the staff open their gifts first and we had everyone watch them. It was funny! Then we gave the gifts to our children. We called each of their names, because each package was labeled with their name, making it more their gift. We made the children wait to open their gifts until everyone had their gift, then we counted to 3 and the room went crazy!!
Everyone was smiling and they were all giddy as they opened up their gifts. The boys laughed and laughed and were so embarrassed when they saw that we gave them underwear. It was so cute!! When they finished opening up their gifts and playing with them, it was time for cookies and hot chocolate. We bought cookies and hot chocolate because we thought it would make it feel even more like Christmas. On the cold morning we all sat around and drank our hot chocolate and munched on our cookies.
After lunch our sports day started. We had been playing games (ping-pong, volleyball, soccer, etc.) this whole week leading up to today. Today we had our finals. The kids had a blast playing all the games. While the children played the sports, the teachers from the Huai Bong school and some of the students came and decorated Agape. They made it beautiful. One of the teachers is also a florist so she decorated with flowers, they put up lights and just made it awesome! I just stood there and watched as everyone helped me to make Christmas amazing for the kids and I had to hold back tears. I was just overwhelmed by their love. As a thank you for the teachers, I wrapped up Christmas presents for them. I gave each of them a Thai Bible and another little gift. The next day at school, Krusookit came up to me, Bible in hand, and told me "Thank you so much for my Bible. I love it. I love Jesus!" He had read parts of the Bible and the Lord really just grabbed his heart. This man and his family are Buddhist, but the Lord can do amazing things!! It's so awesome seeing the Lord working and using me to help!!
The children played the games up until dinner time. For dinner they ate really good food. We had enough funds left over to buy the children delicious food for Christmas. They had 3 items of food to choose from (they normally have one). They were all very happy. After dinner, they all had to rush to the showers and get ready for our performance that was happening at 7:00.
We opened up our celebration with fireworks. One of the teachers brought fireworks In our program we started with worship and a sermon then we had the little girls and big girls do a dance, they sang Jingle Bells, Deck the Halls, and some Thai songs, we had a drama, me and Terra sang a duet-Hark the Herald Angels Sing (it probably did not sound like Angels singing, I'm sure :)), and then we had a Candlelight service with the children singing Silent Night and we finished with Joy to the World. The children all did a wonderful job!! It was beautiful hearing them all sing Silent Night, with the lights out, and the room lit with candles. It really felt like Christmas (even though it was only December 10th :))
I hope your Christmas is just as amazing as mine and just as blessed!
สุขสันต์วันคริสตร์มาส
***I've uploaded some more pictures, so check them out if you get a chance.
7 comments:
Andrea, just read you blog. It really touched my heart even though we argue about everthing. I know it is out of love so no big deal. I am really proud of you. I really felt the joy in your heart as you speak abput your planning of this special day. Every day is special. Treat it as if it were your last day. "Don't worry, be happy." Love you always, Samurai Ralph
Andrea,
What a wonderful gift you bring to the children. You have surely made a difference in their lives. Thank you for making us a part of your journey. Ralph said it well, every day is special. Love, DAD
I loved reading about your Christmas!!! I was writing Christmas cards and came across your name and wished I could have sent it to you! I will save you one for when you get back.:) It looks like you had so much fun with everything! In the pic of all the kids opening their presents they all look so sad...I hope they weren't! I would love to have seen everyone opening their presents! Love you!
Well done on the Christmas stuff, Andrea! I could just imagine the boys' faces as they pulled underwear out of their presents! *LoL* Boxers or briefs? :) j/k By the way, it's been quite a while since your last post, so you might want to get on that, slacker. How was your New Year? How do the Thai people celebrate the new year? Anything cool or exciting? Talk to you soon! :)
By the by, this Crescenet guy's link takes you to some blog that's all in Spanish. Since we don't know what it says or what it means, you might want to delete his comment; it might be bad stuff.
Hey bum! Write a new blog!
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