Have yourself a merry little Christmas!

Dear readers!

Christmas approaches! It’s time for the last minute dash to the shops to get the groceries, stocking fillers and last minute bits and bobs!

Well it might be that time for you, but it’s not here! We are living through a three day pre-Christmas bandh (or strike). No vehicles on the roads and all government offices and a lot of businesses are closed.

Whilst there is a holiday atmosphere where we are in some places there has been a shadow of  violence that has fallen amongst the Kathmandu streets. Please pray for a peaceful resolution to the striking in Nepal.

I’ll be taking a little holiday over Christmas, travelling to Pokhara for a Christmas filled with fun, food and trekking! So hopefully lots of pictures to follow!

It’d be great if you could pray or spare a couple of seconds just to think of me as it’s my first Christmas away from home and my family! Another big first, another big adventure.

I’ve been so blessed with the number of people praying for me, emailing me and just remembering me! It makes me feel so loved! So a HUGE thank-you!

Funny Fact: Did you know that Christmas was only declared a national holiday in Nepal for the first time last year!

I hope you guys have a beautiful Christmas and a snow filled new year! And if you don’t know it already, I hope you find the reason for the season. There’s something behind all the Christmas presents, decorations and hype, someone so obvious, almost too obvious that he tends to get lost amongst everything.

Find him and hold on!

GGF

If Jesus was born in Nepal

One dark night, a few years ago from now, there was a census taken in Nepal. The King had demanded that during the Tihar festival the head of each household and his family must return to their homeland and be counted.
A young family, Mary and Joseph, heard this and began their journey from Kathmandu to Joseph’s hometown, Pokhara. The eight hour bus journey with Mary soon to have her baby was a tough one. It seemed to last forever, they travelled through the night so that they could be in Pokhara on time to be counted.
Mary and Joseph had had an odd few months. With the appearance of two angels, Mary being pregnant with the Son of God and a visit from the new in-laws it had been a stressful few weeks.
***
Far off in India three tailors were working late one night. With no electricity they worked until their eyes were sore by the light of a candle. It was winter and the bjouli had been cutting out so regularly that the three wise tailors decided that something must be done.
They went up onto the roof of their small houses to think. Scanning the horizon they searched for wisdom and an answer to their problems in the starry sky.
And there, far, far in the distance they saw a light. A light so bright that they were convinced that they would be able to work late into the night and finish their work, if only they could get closer to it. So they packed up their belongings, loaded them onto a cart and set off towards the great light.
***
Mary and Joseph arrived in Pokhara. Getting off the bus they managed to avoid the crowd of taxi drivers all wanting their attention and went to look for a place to stay.
They headed to the nearby Lakeside streets to look for a bed for the night. But with the western tourist had come the very western prices of guesthouses. They looked at every guesthouse in Lakeside all of them were full or too expensive. It was getting dark and they became more anxious to find a place to stay for the night.

Mary and Joseph headed out of Lakeside, they walked for a long time looking for places to stay. Eventually in desperation they ended up knocking on the doors of strangers to try and find a place to sleep.

Everyone in the town had family staying with them, they continued searching from house to house until eventually a man with a small guesthouse named ‘the shining star’ offered them a place to stay. I can’t offer much he said, I have some space in the barn with the buffalo and goats if you want to stay in it you can.

By this time Mary and Joseph did not care where they slept as long as they had some place to stay for the night. That night Mary went into labour and gave birth to a son.

They named the child Jesus, as the angel had said and they wrapped in a shawl. The baby didn’t cry, he gurgled happily and then fell asleep in the trough where the animals food was kept.

***

Meanwhile, the three wise tailors were having an adventure of their own. The wheel of their cart had broken and they had loaded all of their belongings onto a motorbike which they had borrowed from a friend.

They set off together, three men on one motorcycle piled high with cloth and a sewing machine.

***
And there were goat-herders in the fields just outside of Pokhara tending their goats and staying warm by the fire.
Suddenly a great host of angels dressed in gleaming multi-coloured Kurta Suruwal lit up the mountain-clad sky, they were dancing and rejoicing at the top of their voices!

‘Glory to God! Today a boy is born in Pokhara! He is the son of God!’

The shepherds were amazed at what they saw, never had they seen Kurta Suruwal so bright, especially in Nepal where there was dust everywhere.
They listened as the angels carolled about this child Jesus and excitedly hurried off to find out where the child was.

‘You will find the baby in a stable, wrapped in cloth and lying in a trough,’ said the angels. Follow the light and you will get there.

***

Mary and Joseph did not realise but they had chosen the only house in the street that had a back-up bjouli battery! They were thankful for the light around them and they fell asleep in the glow and the warmth of the huge buffalo that surrounded them.

The three were sound asleep when they heard a great beating on the door of the barn. Opening the door in a panic, there stood before them were several goatherders and their goats.

‘We’ve come to see the child they call Jesus,’ they said. ‘We know he’s here because the angels told us to follow the light, and yours is the brightest building for miles around!’

The shepherds stepped into the barn, they worshipped the child and rejoiced, for they knew that he was the son of God, just as the angel had said.

They opened their lunch bags and shared their dhal and rice as a midnight celebration of the birth of the child. Afterwards they all fell asleep in the increasingly warming barn.

***

The three wise tailors had been travelling day and night from their home town, the further north they went the more scarce petrol became for their motorcycle. Their adventure was becoming a tedious round of waiting in petrol queues and dodging through the traffic. But undeterred they carried on towards the light, resting by day and following the light by night.

***

Sometime later, Mary and Joseph still fast asleep, were woken by the sound of a motorbike backfiring. It sounded as though it was coughing up its last breath as it chugged and got increasingly louder as it neared the barn. Finally with a huge cough splutter and hiss the noise stopped.
A short moment later there was another knock on the barn and Joseph got up and opened the door to find three tailors. They stood before him, bedraggled, covered in dust and carrying yards of material and a sowing machine.

They saw the crowd inside the barn and were amazed, how on earth did all of these people and animals fit in this small space. Then their eyes fell on the trough, being used as a cradle and suddenly they realised.

In the cradle was a baby boy, a boy that shined so brightly in the darkness that they realised that they had reached their destination without knowing it. They had found the light in their dark world, a light that offered them the hope of a life beyond this one.

Hurriedly they set about making gifts of clothing for the child. And by the next morning Jesus was dressed in the finest baby clothes and had been presented with gifts of jewellery and perfume by the tailors.

***

If Jesus had been born in Nepal today, perhaps this is the story we would be reading. A child born into a predominantly Hindu and Buddhist world, surrounded by buff instead of cows, tailors instead of wise men and goat herders instead of shepherds. But no matter where he was born he came with a purpose: to shine a light into the darkness. To begin the journey that would ultimately restore our relationship with God.

In the heart of every Christian in the world is Jesus and his light is shining out into the darkness that we’ve created. So wherever we are in the universe we can say with certainty that Jesus may not have been physically born here but he is living here.

Praise God!
Merry Christmas.