Two Memories

What shall I write about today? The past week and a half has been a whirlwind of activities. I won't bore you with a blow by blow account of the Christmas parties I have attended (there have been six parties so far, and there are two more tomorrow)! The photos above should give you the idea. It has been fun.

I think I will treasure two memories from the last ten days. One was a song sung by our student, Tiffany, at the IGSL Family Christmas Party. The song is called "He Made a Way in a Manger". Apparently this is not a new song at all (written in 1998) but it was the first time I had heard it. It touched my heart because I've always believed that Christmas makes no sense if you don't think about the Cross, and this song connects them so beautifully. In the past week I have learned it myself and have been meditating on it ever since. Thanks, Tiff!

The second memory I'll cherish is the Christmas party hosted by our IGSL international students for international university students in Manila. We had over 100 guests, and most of them were not believers. Honestly, we have struggled as we have planned this party. Our guests, for the most part, are students from totally non-Christian backgrounds, who have no understanding at all of who Jesus is. Christmas is a great time to introduce Jesus, since there is so much focus on celebrating Christmas here in the Philippines. As we planned the party, there was tension in our group between those who wanted to give a strong evangelistic presentation and those who preferred to use the event to begin to build relationships and win trust. I was encouraged at how God used it to spark some excellent discussions among our students.

You see, most of our students here at IGSL come from Christian families, even though they are from non-Christian countries. However, we have a growing number of IGSL students who come from Hindu, Muslim, and Buddhist backgrounds. I was especially excited as some of our Christian-background students began to seriously try to understand the thinking of our non-Christian guests. Some of these conversations were exhausting. We had endless discussions about how to connect with them, what kind of food to serve, what kind of games to play, what kind of music to present, what kind of message to share, and on and on. But in the end, the party was a great success, our guests are eager to get together again, and the IGSL students are excited about patiently helping their friends move a little closer to embracing Jesus. I'm tired. But it's a good kind of tired.