Sophear's Christmas

I paid $.70 for that candy cane!

When we left Gas City, we left a huge community of people loving on and investing in my babies!  We left an incredible team of children’s ministry workers at Brookhaven Wesleyan Church.  God called Titus and I to Cambodia to reached the unreached, and we brought our babies.  After six weeks of sitting at the back of the church playing Barbies, filling a notebook with crayon drawings, and eating countless crackers and cookies, I realized that there’s ministry to be done at home.

Lord, help me to always be intentional!

Lord, help me to find time every day! 

Lord, inspire me with ways to creatively teach my creative girl!

Sophear spent three hours spread across two days making that mixed media Christmas tree!

Although it doesn’t look or feel like it, Christmas is quickly approaching.  Without the pressure of materializing Christmas, no Christmas cookies, holiday parties, or beautiful decorations, I find myself rightly and solely focused on the true reason for Christmas: celebrating the newborn king!  And while I miss those things, I am grateful for the experience.  I am grateful for the experience to teach Sophear that Christmas is about the baby who is Savior and King.  I have enjoyed the experience of imagining with her what it was like to be a shepherd, startled in the night by a chorus of angels!  And forever I hope to cherish the memory of Sophear looking at the moon, talking about the bright shining star which led the wisemen to Jesus!

Multiple times each day, Chamnab scatters the pieces from Sophear's nativity.  She always returns them to the same arrangement - everyone looking at the sweet baby Jesus!

During Chamnab’s last nap in November, Sophear and I cut these strips to make a paper chain.  On each strip, I wrote a Bible verse that will sequentially tell the Christmas story from Luke 1-2 and elsewhere.  She enjoys cutting one off each day, reading it and all the previous day’s verses, and taping them in the window next to the remaining hanging chain.

Your typical Cambodian Christmas tree is fashioned with colorful lights (sometimes flashing) and many strands of  metallic garland.  Ours is almost typical, but is short on garland with only two strands for our 4' tree.

After scouring YouTube, I found a video of the nativity story as told by The Beginner’s Bible.  While the angel Gabriel was talking to Mary, Sophear said “I know this story!!!” and ran to retrieve her Bible and follow along for the duration of the 25-minute movie.  And some nights, after Chamnab goes to sleep, I tell her the story again while she acts it out using the pieces from her nativity scene.

To see Christ glorified in Cambodia,

Titus, Jewel, Sophear, & Chamnab