Christmas in Bulima Village

We just returned from five days in the village of Bulima with a number of new friends. The drive took about one and a half hours on a good road. Christmas morning six of us walked down to an outdoor church service attended by hundreds of Tanzanians and six westerners. A choir competition had just ended the day before, so we were treated to singing and dancing by four different choirs. The pastor spoke about the example the three wise men show us: to seek out Jesus, to worship him, and to give him our best gifts – from our hearts. It was all in Swahili, but a Wycliffe worker in our group was able to translate the essence for us. We enjoyed the three hour service very much.

Christmas evening a group of 14 gathered for dinner and fellowship in the home of an instructor at the local Nasa Theological College. We were 1 Briton, 3 Germans, 4 Americans, 4 Canadians, and 4 Tanzanians. For most of the non-Tanzanians, this was our first Christmas in Africa. We shared many foods, including delicious roast goat and a dish common to most of our dinners in Tanzania – the best fruit compote available anywhere. We sang Christmas carols and three men shared reflections on different aspects of the Christmas story. Gordon chose to reflect on John 1. Our thoughtful two host families had gifts for each of us. Two things were especially touching about the gifts – the reaction of the two young Tanzanian boys (residents of the Children’s Rescue Center in Mwanza) to the gift of shiny new black shoes and the gratefulness of the young women whose Christmas packages had been permanently lost in the mail.

We are still adjusting to the many differences in the local culture, so we really appreciated the mix of the familiar and the new. It was a memorable Christmas, illustrating to us how much the Christmas story means to people of all cultures all around the world. Merry Christmas to all our friends, old and new.