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Keep your life free from the love of money and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Hebrews 13:5
Keeping it Simple
Christmas in Kenya is much simpler than the Christmases that we experienced in Canada. Our family still exchanges gifts; we still decorate our home with homemade treasures and an artificial fir tree; we still hang strings of lights, sing carols and bake dozens of cookies. But there is far less of it: less and more.
Less party-going but more friends.
Less shopping but more time together.
Less glitz but more glow.
Kenya has given us the gift of simple Christmases, not focused on gifts but on time spent together.
In the final days of Advent, people are leaving Nairobi and making the journey along dusty roads to their rural communities. The markets are selling their last goats and chickens that will be the feature of the annual family feasts. Little girls are wearing new dresses made by their mother or auntie. Boys are kicking around new footballs with their friends, as they walk to church.
Canadian Baptists have served among these Kenyan communities since 1970. As much as we had sought to give, we have received even more. This exchange of love and fellowship is what we have come to call global discipleship. It is the realization that we meet God in relationship with our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Christmas in Africa is about the joy of belonging to the family of God. This Christmas Eve will be our ninth in Kenya. We will spend it around a campfire singing old carols and reading the Christmas story from the Gospels. It will be a time of remembering and giving thanks: that God came near in Jesus, and that because of him we are adopted into God’s family.
In the words of Roy L. Smith, “He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree.” We pray for our children that these Christmases we have shared together in Kenya will shape their identity as children of God.
Erica Kenny, Global Field Staff
Nairobi, Kenya, CBM
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