Christmas 2010 at Point Bible

December 19 saw our first Christmas pageant. Radia and Nelly had worked with the kids for about a month getting them ready. They had to 'borrow' some kids for the parts since we only have 5 at church. They did well, especially seeing that the oldest is only 8 and the others younger than 6. They memorized their parts, several Bible verses each and a couple of songs.

That Sunday we were full: 40 adults and 10 kids! Probably the largest crowd we have ever had. We had a meal afterwards. Managed to fit most everyone around a table so

mewhere. It gets tight when it's crowded with just 40 chairs, then you put up tables for everyone as well.

For me the surprising and enlightening thing was a remark Serge made. He was ecstatic about the day's festivities. For me I thought it went OK. But for him, having never grown up in a church, having never seen kids put on a nativity play, never seen a stage transformed into a manger scene, for him it was incredible.

That's when it hit me. For me this is a small, very small mediocre church. Growing in its own way, but nothing spectacular. But for the members here it is incredible. In a desert the smallest tree is a wonder.

Our church would fit in the closet of most American churches. But here in France, here in Marseille, in our neighborhood, we are a wonder. And for the members, they don't know, have never experienced anything else. So at every small advancement they are thrilled.

As a child I was in the nativity plays. As a teenager I wrote and acted in them and so for me they are 'passé', but to our people here, they are experiencing this for the first time.