i hope everyone had a JOYful Christmas

PENDA

...because I know I did! My Christmas Eve wasn't very festive, contrary to what we were accustomed too. Instead, we (a few friends, sisters, Penda) went caroling at the last minute. I had a fantastic experience (it was my first time) and recommend it to everybody else. It really helps boost your confidence and best of all, you sing for the Lord, bond with your friends and earn too. It gave me a great deal of self-satisfaction. A neighbor even invited us to sing inside their home! It was very spontaneous, our friends Randy, Arnel and Isaiah came to our house with a guitar and started singing a Christmas song (one that Isaiah was not very good at apparently xD) my mother then supplied us the idea to go caroling, I grabbed my bag and we rushed outside and by the time we started, it was already about nine in the evening. We then camped out to our neighbors and spent the first few hours of Christmas there. I am just so thankful, even while writing this. Jesus is the best gift in the world!

Remember Christmas isn’t for us, it’s for JESUS. And what can we do for Jesus on his birthday? I did what the three wise men did on the day of his birth: worship him. So brothers and sisters in the Lord, let us worship him!

Yeah! My playlist for tonight: (I mixed contemporary, praise and worship. i think i realize that xD)

• Adonai – Hillsong
• Jesus Messiah – Christ Tomlin
• My Help Comes From the Lord – The Museum
• Indescribable – Laura Story
• Everything To Me - Avalon
• All of the Words – Kutless
• Beautiful Lord – Leeland
• Desert Song – Hillsong
• We Are The Reason – Avalon
• Aftermath – Hillsong

Christmas: it's not the day, it's giving LOVE

PENDA

I would like to make clear what I think Christmas is. Well, it's called Christmas for a reason and not Clausemas or anything of the sort. Second of all, I would like to emphasize that though I don't believe that Jesus Christ was born on December 25 almost 20 decades ago--one of the reasons why is because Jesus was a Jew and Jews have 12/13 months corresponding to the 12.4 month solar cycle. That makes everything confusing because right now we're using the Roman Calendar. Plus if you look it up in the bible (in the gospels of Luke and Matthew), it was night time and the shepherds were still tending their sheep. Now, I know it's uncommon for snow to hit Jerusalem but it would still be very cold for them to be tending their sheep.

But if you actually stop and think, well isn't it amazing that a divine immortal actually came down to this world of sinners to save us all from our doom? He gave us a gift--a gift of salvation and eternal life. I choose to imitate him. I want to give to others just like he gave to me. Although I cannot, by all means, give people eternal life, the Lord has blessed me enough in abling me to give what I have abundantly--love, compassion and hope (for the lost). And don't stone me for wanting to celebrate his gift! And because the Philippines generally have no classes during the Christmas season, it is the perfect opportunity to give.


And since I'm just a poor student who has no income of her own, I decided to MAKE gifts! Like Pop-up cards! Yeah, you can go knitting (but I wont since it's perfectly sunny over here).