Malawi Christmas

Greetings from Esther' House

This holiday season has been a whole new experience for me. Watching the way another culture celebrates the Christmas season has been exciting. The feeling of excitement was definitely in the air for the past few weeks as Christmas approached. Families were looking forward to the gathering of loved ones and hoping to have enough money to buy food for a special meal as they celebrate the birth of Christ. There was an increase in shopping, but on a much smaller scale than what I am accustomed to seeing. People here just do not have the funds to buy presents for everyone. On Christmas Eve the town was really bustling with people going about everywhere picking up last minute items. If a Christmas bonus is given at all here, it is usually given on December 23rd so there is not much time to finalize preparation for the holiday. Since Christmas I have already had people mention to me that unfortunately they did not have any money to buy rice to make their meal a little more special. That was a sobering thing to hear. Our staff even said that we have had a Christmas that started something new because each one of our children and widows received a gift this year. We were blessed by some people back in America giving money to buy presents so each one would have a Christmas gift.

Widows receiving their gifts

Matching chitinjes

New blankets and book bags

We have no intention of trying to westernize this culture, but it really is tough to hear of the lack of material blessings knowing that there is so much wealth in the world and excessive wealth, at that. I have been here 6 months and grown accustomed to Malawi in many ways but the extreme poverty always gets to me. I want to be clear that we made Jesus birth the focus of our Christmas celebration and NOT the receiving of any gifts.

The preparation for this season began a long while back. For weeks our staff member, Bruce Chilijembumba, has been working with the children to practice songs for our Christmas program. They also created a drama depicting the birth of Christ starting with the moment Mary tells Joseph that she is pregnant and going through the death of Herod and their return home. It was several acts long and they were so creative with their costumes, stage set up and use of actors. It was such a thrill to watch them perform so well, from the oldest down to some of our youngest. They were very professional the whole time and the drama was right on target with the scriptures.

The cast of the drama

Singing Christmas songs

The stage was decorated with flowers and greenery cut from our own gardens and placed in paint buckets at four different places and a string of balloons strung across the ceiling just above the front of the stage. Several children had colored the nativity scene and we hung their artwork on the walls around the chapel to add to the seasonal effect.

Final comments to our guests

The audience was filled to capacity with our widows and several family members of our non-residential orphans. What a blessing we all received as we witnessed the program carried off to perfection by our hard working children and their director, Bruce. He has worked with a drama troop in the past that put on dramas teaching Secondary School children about HIV and AIDS and also with church programs teaching Biblical lessons and he is very talented. He made me so proud for him and the children.

Making Jesus' Birthday cards

During the morning time before our program the children all wrote a Christmas/Birthday card to Jesus praising him and telling him what they were going to give to him this year. They were all gifts of the heart and it was so sweet to read their cards. Stacy made a wall hanging from bamboo poles for the top and bottom with the cards strung from top to bottom in seven different columns with some string. It is now hanging in the classroom to be a reminder to the children of their gifts to Jesus. Stacy also made cloth book bags for all of the children sewing them all herself and we filled them with different items and gave them as their Christmas presents. I have been so blessed to have her here with me for this holiday season. We have both had a new experience this year that we will remember for years to come. It was difficult to be so far from all of my family but God gave me so many blessings and showed me a new Christmas spirit that I pray will always be a part of Christmases in my future. Strip away a lot of the things that we all really don’t enjoy about the holidays and you have a very sweet, pure celebration of the birth of Christ. Enjoy the rest of your Christmas and holiday season and may God Bless you all.

Stacy and me with our 9 residential orphans