Hello, all you wonderful people!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
I know, I know – I am LATE! But – in Germany we have two full days of Christmas (which I have just recently learned, is uncommon in some other countries) – so technically this can still be considered a Christmas Blog 🙂
I really would like to apologize that I haven’t been writing for a long time. But rest assured, I AM thinking of you. I think of friends and family and of home. And although I LOVE the life I am living right now and I have beautiful people all around me and am privileged and honored and thankful for the work of this season that God has called me to do, I miss home and friends and family, especially at Christmas.
Most of you who know me better will probably ask: “so which HOME and what part of her FAMILY is she even talking about?”
Well, as I have recently written in my Staff Bio on our Mercy Ships Intranet site (and now I am just going to quote myself, which seems a little awkward) – ‘home’ and ‘family’ looks a little something like this:
“As my mom lives in Canada and my dad lives in Panama I would say my ‘family’ is spread all over the world. Therefore I have some wonderful friends, whom I consider to be more ‘family’ than ‘just friends’. These lovely people are found mainly in Germany and I feel perfectly at home in their company.
The phrase “home is where the heart is” is definitely one of the themes of my life. To me “home” can’t be pinned to a certain spot on a map. To me “home” is where my constantly expanding circle of friends are.
To me home is where love is.”
So since you are reading this right now, you have been part of my life journey at some point, whether for a long time or a short time, regardless of whether we are related by blood or the blood of Jesus – or if we were traveling side by side in this messy, beautiful, turbulent place called life. At this time I was thinking of you at some point. And my heart is filled with gratitude thinking about the wonderful people that I have traveled together with. My life is filled with rich friendships and I am thankful for this gift. After all, Christmas is about love – so I just want to say THANK YOU for choosing to be a part of my life (even if we are not in touch often) and I want to wish you a wonder-filled Christmas time full of JOY and HOPE and LOVE. I pray you receive these gifts for Christmas and also for the New Year ahead.
For me this Christmas this year was harder than usual (hence the introduction) – I had to willingly choose joy – simply because my heart was heavier, missing my friends and family. But the wonderful people here on the ship have made it their mission to make Christmas special – because, after all – we are all away from most of our friends and family.
So there has been a LOT of Christmas cheer going on these last weeks leading up to Christmas. We decorated the ship, had cookie bakes and a gingerbread house contest, a lot of Christmas Carols (one of them on the dock with candles), different Christmas traditions from different countries, like Sinterklaas for example. There were door decorating contests and craft nights – I really can’t list all the fun activities that were planned for us. And we had lovely Community Advent and Christmas celebrations.
During one of the Advent services one of the Chaplains, Kevin Yangas said something that really struck my heart and stuck with me. He said “we are not trying to make you feel HOME here on the ship with all the activities we do, but we want to make you feel LOVED!”
I really love that thought. So I hope you feel loved, wherever you are right now!
My prayer for this year Christmas was that I would fully grasp the meaning of Christmas and not focus on the holiday itself, but to understand that God himself became flesh to ultimately be reunited with his creation through the sacrifice that was made when Jesus later died on the cross. It is still a mystery I marvel on. So know today that you are loved – perfectly, infinitely loved – whoever or wherever you are right now. That is what Christmas is about. Sure sounds like a reason to celebrate to me! Are you in? As always, I would LOVE to hear from YOU!
Have a merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year!
Love from the Africa Mercy in Benin!
Silke
