Christmas

Well, it's been a while since I posted my last blog entry. I have been to Mirfield Monastery in West Yorkshire for the past week and must say I had a really good time there! I was so pleased to see all the monks again and spend some time with them. They know how I am feeling, this broken sort of feeling, as they have 'been there and done that.' Relating my experiences in England to those in Zimbabwe will be a life time process, they have helped me understand that. It was also good to go back there because nothing has changed and I was able to fit back into the pattern of life, almost picking up from where I left off. There was stability and routine, which is what I was longing for.

I am going to start a parish placement in January in Handsworth, Sheffield, with a priest who trained at Mirfield. I will be leading the youth work and helping with music in the services. The work looks large but definately something to get my teeth stuck into, as it were.

The snow is so wonderful! It is so beautiful! I know it has caused so many problems for the country, but I can't help but look at it's beauty. It's a bit of a difference from Africa's heat though! Christmas preperations have been going well and to be honest I have not had to do much! I'm living on the breadline at the moment, so people are not expecting presents and so on.

I am hoping this Christmas will be special as it will be the first Christmas I have spent with my family for two or three years. I was quite expecting to spend Christmas in Africa, but I am glad to be back.

So here we are, near the ending of the year, celebrating Christmas. It's difficult to celebrate how God would want to choose to step into the realms of limitation and human-ness! I think we under celebrate this fact! God made man, the Word made flesh, Emmanuel, God with Us (God with You!). I was watching Emmerdale last night and the Vicar, although didn't mention Christ, mentioned how Christmas is about relationships. Christmas is about our relationships with others but more importantly it's about our relationship with God restored and upheld. This year, it is easier for me to understand the position of Mary and Joseph as they were chosen out of poverty to raise a King. I have heard so many stories over the past six months of Kings coming out of poverty. God has the ability to shatter poverty and make us rich. Christmas is our hope of a life with him. A relationship with a baby, a baby so great that no one could stop him - Pilate tried to, but they could find nothing wrong with him, the pharisees had to lie to bring him down, and death could not hold him. Christmas is also about this bigger picture, knowing, in light of Christ's death and new life, that we are bigger than the world we are in because Christ, the meek and mild of all things, this baby, lives inside of us and can conquer evil. A baby can overcome Satan.

Today, we must call on this babe to bring peace to HIS broken world. Wars must end because we know this baby. Fights must cease because we are in a relationship with the Christ Child.

How sweet to hold a new born baby, and feel the pride and joy he gives,
But greater still, the calm assurance, this babe can face uncertain days because Christ lives!