St.Etienne’s Children’s Christmas Play

Today was a special day at St. Etienne's. For the first time since our arrival we had communion, Malu's son Jirus sang a solo, the prince of peace choir returned after their absence last week, and it's advent season so the messages are quite festive. I missed most all this however, because early on in the service a small child made her way up the aisle, to our pew, to my seat and whispered in my ear, "Do you want to help us with the Christmas Play?" I followed her out of the church outside to another building used for everything from wedding receptions to the conference center to Sunday school. I walked in and was called up front and introduced; Joy then turned to me and asked do you have the play? Do you have any written material? I tried to make it clear that I was helping with the play, not in charge of the play. A misunderstanding that I hope to clear up early on. The rest of the Sunday school time consisted of choosing angels and shepherds; inn keepers and wise men and all of the Christmas story participants including the elusive "little drummer boy". All the "babies" 2 & under were automatically assigned the roles of lambs and cows- as it was explained to me, "they like that part; they like to roam around and baaa and moooo. I have a feeling that only the babies are actually going to know their "lines" come December 21^st, as next Sunday is our one and only practice.

This week I am in charge of actually writing out the Christmas Play for us; including songs. It will be a different Christmas for Rob and me since we are in Rwanda. So instead of trying to recreate what a Christmas at home would be like, we are enjoying the differences that our Christmas in Africa offers. Like, last night, we were invited last night to a YWAM (youth with a mission) bible study by a mzungu friend from D.C. Liz. They in turn invited us to visit an orphanage with them on Christmas afternoon. We're excited to go and share Christmas with them.

Side note--YWAM's bible study is called Heart of Worship and it meets every Sunday from 5-7pm. It is the closest thing to CCF in Africa I think imaginable. The majority of the time is spent singing, followed by about a 10min talk (the shortest in Africa!) by one of the members and then tea time. They go on Picnics, retreats, and have bonfires on special occasions. The age range is perfect for Rob and me. There are some marrieds, mostly singles, though and even 1 or 2 couples with kids. Some are still in University, but mostly it's a young working crowd. It seems to be a great community and I'm happy that it is a good mix of Rwandese and Mzungu.