Christmas in the PRC

You may think that Christmas in China is non-existent. Think again... it is alive and well in China. Christmas may not have the same feel like the States but the Chinese are following along with Christmas trees, shopping, and having fun with friends and family. There are even Christmas Eve services here.

The thing I like most about Christmas in China is the opportunity to really focus on the true meaning. I get so caught up in the presents and the culture we have made in our Western way of "doing Christmas" that I often forget the most important thing. This Christmas it has been a refreshing time of remembering what is most important. Sure, I miss my fam and all the good eats and snow but I'll still have a lot of chances to see and experience that. I love my fam and our Christmas traditions.

Below, is a picture of a Christmas party some friends and I put on. We had some good Chinese food, did a gift exchange, shared, and played four on the couch. Good times.

Christmas Day, I was invited over by some friends from Atlanta and we had a traditional Christmas meal and she even made me some Apple Pie... good stuff.

I hope you all had a Wonderful Christmas!!!

Below is a picture of our little party we had and my tree I bought at the market for $15.

Great Christmas Story

One Solitary Life

Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village. He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty. Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher.

He never owned a home. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put His foot inside a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place He was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but Himself...

While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. One of them denied Him. He was turned over to His enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed upon a cross between two thieves. While He was dying His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had on earth – His coat. When He was dead, He was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.

Nineteen long centuries have come and gone, and today He is a centerpiece of the human race and leader of the column of progress.

I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that were ever built; all the parliaments that ever sat and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that one solitary life.

Attributed to James Allen Francis