Today is Christmas Eve
eve of Christmas
That Jesus was born, without doubt.
The rest of his life is clear to read in the bestüberliefertsten texts of antiquity, the Gospels.
But who was born there, we can only know because it is told.
For example
By Gabriel, Miriam, announced their calling in life:
mother of the Messiah to be.
By Gabriel, Joseph
surprised and told him that he should call the child Yeshua, Jesus
, rescue, aid, because he was the Immanuel is
of the angels, which woke the shepherds
and sent them to Bethlehem in the stable cave
from the star that the scholars from the country of the East
showed the way to the manger
Of the prophets,
to the already centuries before everything had predicted
From your brothers and sisters who believe with you,
where you can not even believe.
Christians firmly
Discover it.
today.
What do we do? We
a few days in Jerusalem at the Jerusalem meeting of Christ, with Steffi and Guido Baltes ( www.worshipworld.de ) were.
Now we have the CT-Marburg Christian Hard Games: Creative worship service was on Thursday with almost 500 people,
This afternoon Happy Birthday Jesus Party (masses of children and adults, none of the Christian home into
match tonight Holy Night, the English-German Christmas Mass
morning at 11 clock of the "normal "worship.
tonight about 15-20 people come to us, as always on Christmas Eve
How goes off, you can read the article below, the times a few years ago in the journal's turn appeared.
you and all my desire:
holding on firmly fixed on Christ Christian
Roland
Chinese under the table by
! Last year it worked quite well. With the Christmas tree, I mean. Our strict division of labor before I am a regular basis for the purchase of such responsibility. Normally I take this on the morning of Christmas Eve. It is important to get it before twelve noon on the clock stage, because it is so with the last possibility. First, then pack the Christmas tree salesman their last wrinkly copies away, and secondly, do I have to be transported even to go home, then comes the Weihnachtsbaumschmückaktion together in this case, Elke, because here we work with skillfully handles hand in hand, and then it goes from the "Happy Birthday Jesus Party", which in the Christus-Treff Jargon, quite simply, the Christmas Eve afternoon is family worship.
Sometimes it works but not so well with the Christmas tree. For example, in the year when my car broke down, to 1, clock, and I still had no tree. I had already driven across town and had looked at all the classic Christmas tree outdoor sales areas, but either they had already wrapped up, or had only completely entnadelte Krumm spruce, which I could perform the best will in no one but the proper Christmas tree. To make a long story short, I Elke had a borrowed car from friends in the middle of nowhere to pick up between hessisschen villages - all had to satiety still snowing - and we got in prayer and supplication, after all, still a noble fir, although small and potted, but better than nothing. It was then placed on an artificial platform, which was covered with gold foil, and each visitor was given a magnifying glass to admire them independently.
Since that experience that led me almost to the final desperation, I changed my Christmas shopping habits. I'm going always going on about 10:30 clock in the morning and look in fervent prayer, driving through the streets of Marburg, for that special tree that is destined for us this year.
fact that last Years worked so well with the decoration, was because Christmas Eve fell on a Sunday, and the tree purchase action already took place on Saturday. What this means nothing more than that we for the construction and decorating of the tree not had an hour as usual, but heavenly 25 hours time.
Why all the stress?, May wonder the kind reader. Well, this is easily answered. Without any real Christmas tree, old German Christmas party. It's that simple, why do we need a genuine, old German Christmas party? This too can be easily explained: Because of the foreign students. It's obvious!
The whole thing started that is like that. I met many years ago from a student the Philippines. He told me how his first Christmas Eve in Germany was over. He lived in a dormitory, and had thrown himself into his best suit, had gone into town and walked around, in the expectation that appeal to him and invite someone to your home would. For it was in his home country as usual: come in all strangers on the street were invited, and to celebrate with the family's Christmas celebration. So he ran through Marburg, people looked kindly at her, and waited for someone talks to him. But what did not happen. All were busy with the last purchases, ran through the streets until the last shops closed and then disappeared into the Worldwide. No one had spoken to him. Then he finally went to one of the churches. Hundreds of people came to worship. But as the past was to be dispersed the crowd, and he was alone again. Finally, he turned sadly back to the dormitory almost extinct, and was alone.
And so it is with us for years tradition that we invite people on Christmas Eve, which would otherwise be alone. Foreign students, singles, friends and (still) unknown. Sometimes people come directly from the street to us. Meanwhile, I will not miss this Christmas Eve. Usually we are around 20 people in our living room. We read the Christmas story in all possible languages, sing Lots of German and international Christmas songs - each one allowed to do - and eat without end. Then comes, how could it be otherwise, the mess, and finally the game phase in which speaks about "Bohnenpiel" to "Uno" to Monopoly everything possible.
One of those Christmas Eve is a special memory for me. We had, among other things three or four Chinese from the People's Republic as a guest. They had brought with us a delightful gift: a small blanket with embroidered Santa Clauses from China, they said, as a sign that the Christian Christmas was now arrived in the smallest villages of central China. And then played We Uno. They knew the game yet, but they were more enthusiastic. And every time one of them had lost, he once had to crawl under the table because it was so common in China: The loser is humiliated in this way humorous. Now, our living room table has a clear height of 40 cm, and it was wonderful to experience how our Chinese guests were stuck snorting with laughter at the table. Since that Christmas, we have adopted this practice, as our contribution to international understanding. He is with us, "Chinese under the table with". Man Kranner just learn from every culture.
happened that evening something ührendes. A Chinese woman who has was separated over a year from her family, was allowed to light candles on the Christmas tree. She wanted to, we want to photograph them in order to send the image of her five year old daughter. And she said in parting that she would set up from now on, every year in China, a Christmas tree with real candles. So we took all of this Christmas Eve with something for our lives: the German Christmas tree, we are "under the table by Chinese." And what we're all together realized was that we have not only celebrated. Jesus was in fact also present when we crawled under the table. Therefore, I am also pleased this year to Christmas Eve.
wishes you Merry Christmas
Roland
