Christmas | Beyond

Is Christmas Worth Celebrating?

Dec 11, 2024 | Stories

One of the great joys in Joel’s and Becky’s* work has been to see Tazig* believers celebrate Christmas and remember God incarnate in their own culturally relevant ways.

Last year one of their teammate’s sisters returned to visit her Himalayan family. Priscilla’s* sister has lived in the United States for the past ten years and has become an American citizen.

As Priscilla and the other Tazig believers were making plans for their Christmas celebration, her sister, Amrita,* asked, “Oh, you are going to celebrate the English New Year?”

Priscilla replied, “No, we are making plans to celebrate Christmas when the Creator God came to the earth and lived as a human.”

Amrita never understood Christmas. For 10 years she had heard people in the United States say, “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.” Since her people celebrate the Tibetan New Year over multiple days, she thought Christmas was just the start of our New Year’s celebrations. Amrita had never heard the Christmas story.

Thankfully, Priscilla told her about God sending His Son to the earth and all about Christmas. A few days later, Amrita joined the Tazig Christmas celebration, knowing for the first time what it was all about.

How does this happen? How does a person live near multiple churches, likely work side by side with at least a few Christians, and never hear about the reason we celebrate Christmas? Of course, BEYOND is all about sending long-term teams to unreached peoples to start movements of reproducing disciple-makers. But, we share this story as an encouragement.

There are lost people in our neighborhoods, workplaces, and communities who haven’t heard the Good News. They might look just like us, or they might look different. They may have just arrived, or they may have been born in our hometowns. They probably know what a church is and have heard the name “Jesus,” but they haven’t heard the Good News.

The honor of telling them belongs to all of us – not just pastors and missionaries. Jesus gave all His followers the responsibility to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything [Jesus] commanded you” (Matthew 28:19–20). Will you be obedient to Jesus’ last command? Go ask someone if they would like to hear why Christmas is really worth celebrating.

*pseudonyms

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NO SIGN OF CHRISTMAS
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Obedience in Spite of Fear

Dec 14, 2022 | Stories

Imagine Mary hearing the angel’s stunning message! How would you respond? Mary, probably still a teenager, responded with initial fear, deep humility, amazing faith, and joyful obedience.

In Luke chapter 1, we see she was afraid when Gabriel told her of God’s plan (vv. 29-30), and she probably feared what her community would think. She knew she was not important (vv. 48, 52). Yet, she had visionary faith that God’s plan would impact generation after generation (vv. 50, 55)! She rejoiced in the privilege to serve and obey (vv. 38, 46-47), as Elizabeth also noted (v.45): “Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!”

Around the world, teenage women and men by the millions are obeying with similar amazing faith. In India, many commit to Jesus because, like Mary, they are stunned and overjoyed to learn that God invites poor people to work with Him!

They are feeding people, praying for healing in Jesus’ name, helping other poor people – and multiplying new disciples and churches.

This Christmas, we say with Mary (vv. 46-47): “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!”

The Haji’s Gift

Dec 20, 2018 | Stories

It was the *Woodhouse family’s second year serving in Indonesia, and their first Christmas living in the house they would rent for the next 18 years. Everything was going really well. They had found a home to rent in a mostly Muslim neighborhood and were on good terms with their landlord, Mr. Haji, who lived right next door. Everyone called him “Mr. Haji” because he had made the pilgrimage to Mecca. He considered the Woodhouses to be part of his own family. In fact, he had instructed all the neighborhood kids to be nice to the whole family or else they would answer to him!

The neighborhood was the kind where everyone knew everyone else’s business. Having settled in, the Woodhouses employed some local help to work in their home. This assured that many details of their lives became part of the neighborhood’s interesting news. The Woodhouse family had already shared that they were followers of Jesus, but soon it was known that they did not own any dogs or eat bacon, pork, or ham, things considered “haram” (forbidden) to Muslims.

These considerations were very intentional on the part of the Woodhouses. They did not want to cause any offense or relational distance with their Muslim neighbors. Knowing Indonesians already believed Christianity to be a “Westerners” religion, the Woodhouse family desired that everything they did and said point to Christ and not merely to religious trappings.

During the Christmas season this meant no Christmas tree in the Woodhouse home. The four Woodhouse children were perfectly fine with this because they had never had a Christmas tree. As Mr. Woodhouse put it, “I never found a tree helpful for pointing myself or anyone else toward thoughts of the incarnation.”

The absence of a tree had been noticed, however. And one December morning a knock at the door revealed Mr. Haji bearing a gift. “I saw you didn’t have a Christmas tree, so I wanted to bring you one.” The Woodhouse family graciously accepted the little, potted evergreen and set it in a place of honor in their front room where neighborhood visitors could admire it. To this day, the now-grown Woodhouse children enjoy the irony that their first Christmas tree came from an Indonesian Haji!

*pseudonym

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A Caroling Calamity

Dec 13, 2018 | South Asia, Stories

When Sanjay* and some fellow followers of Christ decided to celebrate the Christmas season with caroling, they knew to be discreet. After all, they lived in northern India, where persecution of Christians is an everyday threat. Casually going into the streets singing to random strangers was not an option. No, they purposed to only go to the homes of friends like Raja. Raja was not yet a follower of Jesus but he was regularly participating in one of the local Bible studies. Surely it would be okay to sing outside his house? They assembled at Raja’s home and had begun singing when the front door flew open and a man shot into their midst. It was Raja’s older brother, Charan.

With a machete-like knife in his hand, the irate man lunged into the crowd of carolers. Charan first destroyed the drum they were playing and then began slashing wildly toward the people. He got close enough to cut one man’s shirt, but thankfully no blood was drawn. The carolers quickly left and reported this incident to the police. Some officers accompanied them back to Raja’s home, but by the time they arrived, Charan had fled. After the officers left, Sanjay and the others prayed for Raja and his whole family.

About one week had passed when Sanjay’s phone rang. It was Charan. He explained that he had turned himself into the police and asked if Sanjay could come down to the station. As soon as Sanjay arrived, Charan bent down, touched Sanjay’s feet three times (a gesture of respect) and said, “I am very sorry. You are a good person.” God had been at work in the lives of Raja’s family, and, because of this incident, all of Raja’s family except Charan decided to become Christians!

This Christmas, whenever you hear your favorite carols, please be praying for God to open the hearts of those who are violently opposed to him. Pray they would accept Christ and become conduits for many others to receive him.

Joy to the world, the Lord is come!

Let Earth receive her King.

Let every heart prepare Him room.

*pseudonym

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