How many times was Jesus born?

Well, He was only born once, but who says we can’t celebrate the whole month of December? The whole month of December was spent celebrating Christmas! It was a blast! I had the opportunity to go to so many Karen villages, which are my favorite places to be, and experience Christmas in a whole new way. After we had our wonderful Christmas here at Agape, we went on a 4 day trip to Teesano Village. A couple of our children live in this village so it was really fun seeing their homes and meeting their familes. Me and Terra stayed in Soritoo’s house. He is such a sweetheart. He really took care of us making sure we always were nice and full. To get to this village was an adventure in and of itself. We went on a trek through the mountain in our truck and our truck is not a 4-wheel drive truck. We got stuck so many times and we had to get out of the truck. The boys loved it though because they all stood on the back of the truck and jumped up and down to help give the truck traction to get up the hill. Then there’s me who is also loving it all cracking up and taking pictures of it all. It was hilarious! I loved it! The trucks finally could not go any farther so we ended up leaving the trucks at a village on the way and hiking the rest of the way. I love hiking, so it was exhilarating. We were hiking through the Thai jungle to get to a village that couldn’t even be seen. It was tucked away down in the mountain about 10 km. away. It was a beautiful hike. Being in the village was even more fun. I felt like a disciple back in Jesus’ time. I would just walk around from house to house and they would invite me in. They would feed me and then I would ask them if I could pray for them. It was such a blessing. I felt like I was a disciple who Jesus told to go into the villages and not bring anything with me because they would take care of me. They really did take care of me. The Karen people feel very blessed if we eat in their homes, so let’s just say it’s a good thing I did a lot of hiking because I also did a lot of eating. One day we were eating lunch at Soritoo’s house. The food was delicious and I made sure I ate enough of it (as I always do). Then Pastor came in and informed us to not eat too much (it’s funny he was informing us of this after we had already finished eating and finished eating too much) because we were going to have to go eat lunch at other homes as well. I ended up going to four more houses after I was already stuffed and eating and fellowshipping and praying with them. Somehow God gave me more room in my stomach, which was good because my stomach was definitely not used to eating five lunches in one day. It was really fun celebrating Christmas. We were able to give all the villagers gifts and we had a wonderful celebration full of singing, dancing, and even mine and Terra’s lovely duet. The journey out of the village was even more fun. I hiked out with some of the little kids and one guy who speak English pretty well. He was hiking with his guitar and we just sang worship songs the whole way. I had Nunu’s and Emu’s hands in mine and every once in a while they would run a little bit ahead of me pick flowers and give them to me. By the time we got to the top I had a huge bouquet of flowers. It was the best bouquet of flowers I’ve ever been given.
After Teesano Village we went to Mae La Village to celebrate Christmas with them. I love Mae La Village, it’s one of my favorites. There is one family that I have just fallen in love with there. The little girl, who is about 3 years old, follows me everywhere. If I sit down she’s right there on my lap. If I stand up and walk around she’s right next to me, hand in hand. Wherever I go she’s right there, and when it’s time for me to leave she holds onto my leg. I love her so much. Every time I go there she remembers me and she runs up to me and doesn’t leave my side until I go back home. This last time her mom gave me a beautiful Karen purse she had made for me. It’s my favorite purse of all the purses I’ve been given. At this Christmas celebration I was supposed to do a dance with Prapah and Nawmyo. They called us up onto the stage because it was our time to dance. The DVD ended up not working, so we didn’t have our music. So I decided I would just sing a song instead. The girls were so embarrassed to walk off the stage. It was so funny. They covered their faces and bashfully walked off the stage. I didn’t understand why they were embarrassed, they got to leave the stage. I had to stay up there and sing in my dancing clothes. It was fun though because there were all these guys in the back who were cheering for everyone really loudly, so of course, when the Callowah (white person) gets up there they were going crazy! In Mae La Village we all slept huddled together on the floor in Sakchai’s house. I just love Sakchai’s family so I loved staying there. It was pretty cold that night, but I had all the kids around me keeping me warm.
We also went to Ma Ka Mu Noie to celebrate. All the celebrations were the same from village to village. A lot of singing, dancing, dramas, and a sermon. They were so much fun. Karen people are so talented. Another village we went to to celebrate was Mong Ta village. This is the village where we have another Agape. We have 28 children who live here and Pastor Winai’s sister-in-law takes care of the kids. It was really funny at this village because Pastor had told me I was going to sing a song but I didn’t know when. I was just walking around and I saw these two ridiculously cute girls. I started taking pictures of them and every time I would show them their pictures they would fall to the ground laughing. It was adorable. Well, as I’m taking pictures of them I hear my name being called from the stage. It was my turn to go up and sing. I thought that Boon Choi or somebody would play guitar for me so I could sing a song I knew, but they already had the designated “piano man” up there so I just had to tell him a song I wanted to sing. So anyways, he knew the song Hark the Herald, so I ended up singing that one. After I was finished I said Tabloo (thank you in Karen) and I was ready to walk off the stage, but oh no, they wanted me to sing another song. So I sang Silent Night, when I finished I said Tabloo again but then they told me they wanted me to sing it again. Then I finished and they told me to sing another song. I was just laughing. So I sang Jingle Bells and when I finished, yep, you guessed it, they told me to sing it again. It was so funny. While I sang it two people came up on stage and they put these candy lei’s around my neck and gave me bags of chips. It was so sweet.
I have had the most amazing time celebrating Christmas in Thailand with my favorite people, the Karen people. It has been the best Christmas I have ever had! I think it’s one of the best ideas to give a whole month to Jesus and celebrate every day!