A merry little Christmas

Just a little window into Christmas in Bundibugyo...

Charlie Brown Christmas tree #1... webale electricity this year with means LIGHTS!

Christmas tree #2 (which more accurately is 6 branches wired together)... the dead branches of tree #1 started falling off

RMS Christmas party with special guests Kym and Lydia... Happy Birthday Jesus!

Johnson's Katube living nativity/ RMS program. With Ivan reading in Lubwisi, and Pat costume coordinator. I love how this picture captures the afternoon with our rambunctious shepherds, lovely angel Lilli with pink wings, and expressive Afsa as a beautiful Mary

Two Kings...

... And 3 wise women

Christmas eve at the Johnsons... Chrissy is really excited about santa, Lydia... not so sure :)

Church service on Christmas day... ladies choir in new Christmas dresses

What's in a Name?

From the very beginning of time naming was something important to God. To name something suggests ownership. Adam’s first job was to name all the animals, as his work was to subdue the earth and husband it. God himself gives Adam his name, an identity linked to his creator. However, after the fall, our true identity was marred, lost even. We lost the ability to be ourselves. We knew shame for the fist time. We couldn’t love, we couldn’t trust God or even do the work created for us. We needed a new name, a new identity... we needed a savior! When God promised to link himself to Abram, to save and bless the world through him, He also changes Abram's name to Abraham (father of a multitude). God routinely does this through out the old testament, a gesture of redemption, of making these men and women His own. For Abraham’s wife Sarai He changes her name to to Sarah (Princess... even after she laughed at the promises of God). Abraham’s grandson, Jacob becomes Israel (one who struggles with God). These names were were reminders of one who would come.

The creator, the one who was there in the very beginning, would become flesh and dwell among us. But when Christ came he was born as he son of peasants no one had ever heard of. Jesus from Nazareth... who was that? This indescribable God actually took a name, a shrunken identity. Not nearly showing the glory of all that He is. Isaiah attempts in several names, “He shall be called, “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” But on that night when he was helpless crying baby these were things that he laid aside. The shepherds got a glimpse of his glory in the singing of the heavenly hosts. The wise men saw the star that spoke of his greatenss. Joseph and Mary each got visitations from angles trying to describe His wonder. But his majesty just couldn’t be contained or explained even in dozens of names.

At Christmas it is appropriate for us to ask ourselves: why would God do such a thing? He came to live among us, attempted to describe himself because He so longs for us to know Him. He gave up part of his identity so that we could have His. A new, a perfect identity. He came to give us a new name. Just as he gave names to Abaham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, and so many others. He has a name for you... as his beloved Child. “I will give him a stone, with a new name written on the stone, that no one knows except the one who receives it.” Revelation 2:16 Last Christmas as our team prepared for advent, Jennifer Myhre asked us to read John 10:3 “To Him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice and, he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.” She asked us to to listen for Jesus calling our name. I have been blessed this year by revisiting this meditation. I hope you will take some time to do the same. Let him call you by name. May you know more his deep, deep love for you this Christmas!

A gift that keeps on giving

Another year at Christ School Bundibugyo has come to a close! I have so enjoyed spending time with these secondary school students. Praying with them! Hearing their stories. Watching God enter their lives. The students that I have spent the most time with are part of the orphan and vulnerable children’s scholarship program. My team mate Chrissy interviewed some of the graduates. Read and be blessed!

Meet Kansiime Asumini. She calls Bumate village her home and answers my questions in a soft-spoken voice with a smile. We find common ground being the youngest child in our families and she tells me about her favorite Nigerian movie. Asumini recalls both the happy and the sad life-changing moments that have occurred in her nineteen years. She remembers the joy she felt at being accepted at Christ School as well as the discouragement of becoming ill during her first term there. While teachers made preparations for her to return to her home, a friend and fellow student named Miriam, prayed for Asumini. Soon after, there was no more talk of Asumini returning home due to her illness—she had been healed! Remembering God’s healing power, Asumini says she learned that “God has plans for me and He can make a way when there seems to be no way.” As she dreams of what those plans may hold, Asumini hopes to become a journalist, taking photos and writing stories of important events in Uganda. Join us in praying for Asumini as she graduates from Christ School, that her light would shine brightly here in Uganda.

Meet Nyangoma Agnes. Her story is one full of pain and hardship but also one of victory. She comes from Buganikere village and enjoys visiting home on term breaks, where she helps in her aunt’s shop and plays with her uncle’s young children. Agnes completed primary school but there was no money for her to attend secondary school. God provided her with a sponsorship at Christ School, where she began to learn about God and the teachings of the Bible. When she came down with smallpox, she thought death was near but after being healed, she began to trust God with her whole life. Two years ago, Agnes’s twin sister died. As Agnes remembers her sister, tears roll down her cheeks and the pain is still great. However, Agnes can still say “God has done great things for me”. She says with confidence that God has always been with her as she has passed through many troubles. She also states that God is for her and not against her, pointing to the evidence as she prepares to graduate from Christ School. Agnes has a passion for math and economics and hopes to one day become a businesswoman. Join us in praying for Agnes and other students of Christ School—that they would have similar stories of triumph and be able to say “God has done great things for me”.

Would you consider blessing future CSB students? I would love to introduce you to one of them! We will have 10 new freshman scholarship students in 2011. You can sponsor a child for $600 a year ($50 a month) and give the gift of hope! For more information visit http://www.whm.org/csb. OR just send me an email at annalinhart@gmail.com.