Children's Christmas Party

Something we do every year (the party for 2006 can be found here) is host a Christmas party in December for the children of the church and neighbors' children. It is a good opportunity to preach Jesus to the children. Unlike many American children most Mongolians children and adults alike tend to confuse Christmas and New Year. Although they are different words in Mongolian, often when we talk about Christmas Mongolians associate what we are describing with New Years Eve celebrations. Our party each year allows us to talk about why Christians celebrate Christmas: because Christmas is the time that we thank our God that He sent His Son to be the Savior of the world.This year we had more children than ever. Although we only invited a dozen children, 16 came to the party. Along with our four children that meant we had twenty children in our apartment. With temperatures outside below zero, sending the children outside to play was not an option.

We had a small craft for the children who came early. That was followed by the cookie decorating time which is always an event that the children look forward to. The sugar cookie dough is made ahead of time and then distributed to the children who roll it out and use cookie cutters to create various cookie shapes.
While the children are listening to the Christmas story and participating in the gift exchange the cookies are baked. Then the cookies go home with the children at the end of the party. With sixteen different children all trying to find their cookies at the same time it was quite a crowd in the kitchen.
Somehow when I took the picture at the end of all the children who came I cut out two of children on the end. Not counting our own family, nine families are represented in this picture. We have had the chance to witness to most of the parents at least once. Please pray for the salvation of our neighbors and that the seed planted at this year's party will grow to fruition on the lives of these young Mongolians.