"The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." John 1:14
Dear friends-
Happy advent to you! Christmas has certainly come to India, and there has been a flurry of Christmas activity. Performances galore, lots of Christmas carols, Christmas cards...these past two weeks have really been a joy-filled time.
For me the Christmas season opened with the Mixed Voices recital on Sunday, December 4th. The Kottayam Mixed Voices are one of the choirs I belong to and this was their annual recital, held at Mammen Milapilai Hall in the center of Kottayam. It was a large performance with over a thousand present and literally everyone I know in Kottayam was there! I had the honor of getting to sing a solo, "O Holy Night" at the concert. (See the video below.) Yesterday, the 18th, we travelled to Ernakulum, (near Cochin, two hours away), to perform our recital a second time.
It was a beautiful concert. I really felt like I belonged as a part of the choir, singing on stage with them, wearing the same uniform as everyone else. This was a familiar thing-singing on stage with a choir-one of the first things I've done in India that felt familiar! Especially sitting backstage with the choir between pieces, I felt like I could close my eyes at be right back at a performance at Westminster.
Something awesome about the concert was how Christ-centered it was! In between the pieces, two emcees relayed information about the piece and tied it in with an anecdote about Christmas or a specific Scripture. For example, we sang a piece about the shepherds hurrying to Bethlehem, and the emcee spoke about us continuing to run to Jesus at all times and to strive to follow Him just as the shepherds did. Please enjoy these pictures of the concert:
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| Jemima and Sweetha's duet |
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| KVM with the Bishop |
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| After the performance with our keyboardist Joe, Gigi Sir's son |
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| Asha, Gigi Sir's daughter |
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| With my supervisor Gigi Sir after the performance |
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| First time I wore a sari! With Gigi Sir and Joe before a KVM performance |
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| 6 meters of fabric! |
Right after the performance with Mixed Voices, those of us who are also in CSI Ascension Church Choir made a quick costume change and sang three songs with this choir at another carol night nearby at Jerusalem Marthoma Church. We sang Silent Night as the final piece of the night while holding lit candles, just like we do back home, and I played a violin accompaniment. It was a beautiful, song-filled evening!
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| Men's group from CSI Ascension Church |
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| With Diya, a friend from church and Mixed Voices |
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| CSI Ascension Church Choir |
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| Silent Night by candlelight... "In the Bleak Midwinter" quartet with Diya, Prathibha, and Jemima "Go, Tell It on the Mountain" quartet |
Two Thursdays ago, I was invited to Baker Memorial School's Christmas performance to sing a solo and to attend. I thought that this would be a small program, but it was a 2.5 hour affair with over 1300 children present!!! The excitement in the air was palpable as the choir finished and the Christmas tableau began. I've never seen a tableau before: it's like a play, except the actors form a scene on stage and then freeze, while someone offstage narrates the story. The tableau included many girls with beards painted on their faces as the wise men, (Baker Memorial is just a girls' school), the star from the east that actually moved across the auditorium when pulled by a string, and angels with Styrofoam wings dancing to techno music. Yes, techno music. It was awesome.
After the tableau, fireworks literally exploded in the back of the auditorium! (See last post about being prepared for anything at any times in India.) This was to herald the arrival of Santa! Santa came in and did a kind of Santa dance on stage. The kids were literally so excited for the rest of the day that the teachers decided not to hold classes for the afternoon. I helped pass out Christmas cake to the kids, and then because I didn't really know what was going on, decided to go around to the classes and sing Christmas carols with them. :)
Though most of the students at Baker schools are Hindu or Muslim, most celebrate Christmas in some way and participate in the Christmas performance. All are present for the reading of Scripture and get to hear the Christmas story! It is such a joy here to be able to speak openly about the Bible in the classroom-something we can't do back home. Religion is not a private thing in India like it is in the U.S.-here religion is open and everywhere! It is a part of everything and a frequent topic of conversation. People of all faiths are open to talking about God and about their own faith. At the schools here, the staff meets for prayer every morning and most begin each class with a prayer. Every single choir rehearsal ends with prayer. The students also begin and end each day with a school prayer, a hymn, and the singing of the national anthem. At CMS, too, each morning at 10 am, the principal, Korah Sir, says a prayer over the loudspeaker and the hymn, "Have Thine Own Way, Lord" is played. This is something I love about this culture: how openly God is spoken of, and how Hindus, Muslims, and Christians alike pray together every day in schools and talk about their faith.
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| Baker School's Christmas choir |
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| The star that moved on a string to lead the wisie |
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| The angels in Baker School's Christmas tableau |
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| Santa invites me up to give me a present! |
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| Santa arrives with fireworks and greets Baker Memorial School |
Christmas has also come to Lea Hostel. We have something called "Christmas Friend," where each girl gets the name of another girl on a slip of paper and writes notes to signed only "Your Christmas Friend." There will also be a Christmas Friend gift exchange, and only then will everyone's Christmas Friend be revealed! I am enjoying keeping up a correspondence with the person who has me as their Christmas Friend and my own Christmas friend. There is a box kept in the lobby where these notes are dropped off and received. This correspondence is frequent-if I put a note in the Christmas friend box in the morning I can be sure to have a response by the afternoon! I also have another anonymous correspondent who goes by the name of "Daffodil," with whom I write notes. haha :) I can't wait to find out who these girls are!
I arrived back to my room a week ago to discover that a huge blue Christmas star was hung on my porch! Illuminated Christmas stars are a very popular item here. Thanks to kind friends from home, I also have a little Christmas tree on my door and a miniature Nativity scene!
Right now I am not having many of the regular classes I teach, but TONS of choir rehearsals! I have had at least three choir rehearsals a day recently-sometimes four or even five. Every day we have college choir twice a day, which I will soon be leading. (Much to my surprise, Vimal Sir, the college choir director, wants me to actually direct the choir for their performance; I thought he just wanted me to help out with rehearsals! I am very excited about this!) I rehearse with a quartet of girls from church. In the evening, I lead Hostel Choir; our hostel Christmas Day is this coming Wednesday. I also taught the choir at Baker Vidyapith "The Twelve Days of Christmas" along with motions, and their school performance is this coming Wednesday as well. So these along with Mixed Voices and church choir performances and rehearsals are certainly keeping me busy! From now until Christmas I can count at least six other upcoming performances which I get to direct or perform in. This week will be a very busy week with Baker School Christmas program, college carol service, Lea Hostel carol service, and the church carol service on Christmas Eve. I am sooo blessed to have all of these wonderful opportunities.
This is most certainly an exciting and busy time, a time of great joy! What a wonderful time Christmas is! Hearts are tender, Christ is spoken about so frequently, and His name sung so loudly! May I be open and receptive to all the times I get the chance to share about my Lord and Savior's birth!
Prayer requests:
1) For continued opportunities to share Christ's love at Christmastime, and to have the right attitude when they appear.
2) For my sister, who just arrived in Malawi for a 7-month clinical trial of her device. (For those of you that don't know Joce, she is a bioengineer with a global health technologies nonprofit, and she invented a CPAP (breathing device) for infants that is specifically designed for use in developing nations, called the Baby Bubbler. This device is absolutely brilliant and has already saved lives; she's tested it and worked on it Malawi for three weeks this past year. Now, she has arrived in Malawi for a 7-month clinical trial of her device. Please check out her blog at http://bubblecpapinblantyre.tumblr.com/). Pray that her as she adapts to this new culture and begins to get settled. It's awesome that we will soon be able to swap our cultural adjustment/living abroad stories!
3) For my voice, as it's giving me difficulties, doesn't feel normal, and I need it for a lot of upcoming things.
4) Also related to family, my mother and sister will be here on the 29th of December!!!!! I am SOOO excited to see them! Please pray for their travel and preparations. Pray especially for my sister's travel here-her flight into Malawi was delayed two weeks because of the Malawian fuel crisis and we don't know how easy it will be for her to fly out of the country.
Random tidbits:
1) I finally get to wish everyone "Happy Christmas!" I can't say that enough.:)
2) When one is served water here, it is most often hot and frequently has herbs mixed in it to make it taste better. It's usually a greenish or a light reddish color. Though I have been drinking this since I arrived in India, I know secretly think of it as "Christmas water." I know that's really silly, but it makes me happy. :)
I'm going to close with thoughts from a missionary in Central American on being away from home at Christmas time, from my daily devotional. "Every year I ask the Lord to reveal something new to me about the Christmas story. When we left for Central America, we sold most everything that belonged to us, including the majority of our Christmas decorations, some of which we'd had most of my life. When our first Christmas on the field came, it was more difficult to be in the 'Christmas spirit' because the familiar decorations weren't displayed, the weather wasn't cold, and we definitely don't get snow. Additionally, we had no special friends or family to share the joy of the season. As I sought the Lord, I was shown the actual heart of Christmas, which is turn changed my own heart. It occurred to me that while all these things symbolize Christmas, all of these things are not Christmas. When all the stuff-- the lights, gifts, trees, food, and even friends--was taken away, it came down to Jesus. He is the only reason to be celebrating. I learned that everything I need for Christmas, and for my life, is found in Jesus. Apart from Him, 'I have no good thing.' (Psalm 16:2)"
Love you all and miss you a lot,
Claudia
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