While over the Thanksgiving weekend many folks in the US “camped out” in front of stores to get a great buy on some toy or gadget, here we camped out as a family in our living room. We dragged mattresses out and lined them up side by side with kids laughing in disbelief, “you mean we’re ALL gonna’ camp out here?” It was a chilly evening for Honduras, dipping below 60 (and realize that we don’t have heat and the cement walls magnify that cold) so we brought in a bucket of wood and made a fire. Then it was movie time complete with fresh popcorn. And I thought, “you know I really already have more than I need.” I even had a chance to celebrate American style complete with turkey and cranberries-twice. I was able to talk to my boys in the states-and even sent one a surprise package at school.
The next day, as the kids and I worked on the final touches of our Christmas Child style packages to go out to the kids at the dump we shared in the excitement of putting together these gifts. I studied the names, some of which were familiar spanish ones and others quite different to me. Tonight these kids will camp out in a trash heap. In the morning they will help their family sort through the mess for anything of value. Puts the whole concept of Black Friday shopping in a new light.
Thanks Lord- for these children who enjoy putting together gifts, for a night in front of the fireplace, for popcorn and movies at home, for the small life here that is so blessed, for the three who extend our family’s reach outward, for the ones who are far in distance but close at heart, for the privilege of a telephone…