Embassy Outreach

Christmas is one of those remarkable days that takes up an entire month. Praise God that there are not too many of these in our calendar! That being said, I do love this season.

We don’t do too much holiday hosting during December. Surprised? Everybody’s calendar seems quite full. People are often stressed by the idea of fitting in a dinner at our home and TRULY I do not need to be making dinner for anybody who doesn’t want to come eat it. I have children for that.

Our Christmas tradition is caroling. We take our merriment to the homes of other people and we invade their front porches. With one other family, we gather together in their living room to choose our songs and see if we’ve remembered the words from last Christmas. We usually select just three or four. After all, we have a fresh audience every 5 minutes and I don’t know about your kids, but mine like repetition!

And then it’s, “Get your scarf! I know it’s warm in here but it is cold out there. Go potty. I know you don’t have to go but you do have to try… well then just go sit there and think about it for a minute. Shoes on! No, you can’t wear your Spiderman slippers.” I say so many things with a straight face that I never thought I would say.

Singing for strangers, at 6pm on a weekday evening is full of surprises. We’ve caused a woman who was all alone to burst into tears. We’ve been recorded by smart phones. We’ve given babies a reason to stop crying… I think we’ve also given a few babies the idea of crying. And my children have been given far too many peppermint sticks and chocolates. That, of course, is why they love to go caroling! While they munch on their candy, we adults talk about the smiles they brought to people’s faces. They nod in agreement and unwrap another piece of chocolate.

This is our Embassy Christmas outreach. We want to effect one weekday evening, one dinner conversation, one solitary night at a time. Change the world. Start right where you are.