We host a Christmas party for International students every December. Yes, its early December, but with the end of classes in mid-December and then exams before the semester break, the only time is early December. We celebrate Thanksgiving and the next Monday we are planning the Christmas party.
We open the party to anyone and do some publicity to see who might be interested to come, but most often those who come are friends and acquaintances of the Christian students involved with us. They bring International students they meet in their classes, or those who are in their labs and Advisee groups, or even friends of friends.
About 27 came Saturday night, which makes for a nice size party. I hadn't met about 17 of them before, so it was fun to meet new students, many of whom were from China. They said they only had been in the US about 3 or 4 months and this will be their first Christmas -- ever! They were curious about American traditions and understanding what Christmas is about.
What a privilege to be the first people to tell them about the birth of Jesus Christ and the true meaning of Christmas, God's gift to us.
The Americans who came shared family traditions from their childhood. Many were common among us, but some were very unique and interesting to hear about. We sang a couple Christmas songs (Silent Night, Walking in a Winter Wonderland), and then one of the men took seven minutes to tell about Christ's birth and why he came to earth. He did a great job!
I think for many people, though, one of the most interesting times of the evening was when one of the women graduate students shared her personal story about how she came to faith in Christ in the midst of life-threatening tragedy while in college. She was open and warm and honest and tied the entire evening together. Everyone clapped when she finished. I'm not sure, but I think this was the first time ever that she had told her story in a group like this.
The party had lots of food, a Christmas present game and hours of good conversation. And two graduate student friends of ours from China came later on in the evening. It was especially fun to see them again.
Dianne had the opportunity to talk with two students about Christmas and their understanding of the gospel message. Everyone stayed late -- we left about 11:40 pm before most people.
A fun game that had everyone laughing. A gift was wrapped multiple times (11, I think) and someone had to put on a Christmas stocking cap, a frog blow-up swim toy around their waist and thick, heavy snow gloves to open it. They could unwrap as fast as they could while the circle around them tossed dice. Whenever anyone rolled a six or nine, they then put on the cap, frog and gloves and the unwrapping continued. After many stops and starts and switching of cap, frog and gloves, someone finally managed to unwrap the gift all the way -- which was theirs to keep. Everyone laughed a lot!
Fun conversation. The woman in green was the one who shared her personal story of how she came to faith in Christ.
This is 18 of about 27 who came. Wonder where Dianne was?
I think Dianne was talking to her family in the basement. :)
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