Saturday Post -- 15/12/12

See 'pros'.

Around the world, countries tend to have their own natural starting guns where it's OK to acknowledge that Christmas is nearly upon us and to begin preparations forthwith. The US, for example, have Thanksgiving. In the UK, we have July.

Here in Bolivia, it's Christmas, Jim, but not as we know it. This, one must remember, is a culture where religious festivals are liberally laced throughout the year like so much tinsel on a tree (and are religiously accompanied by sacrilegious quantities of beer). Christmas is just another such holiday and was treated as such for many years. With the benefit of a decade's absence between my two stints here, however, it's clear that Christmas is slowly but surely emerging from the pack as a holiday of rare note. Shops are now decked out in mid-November, stalls for fake trees and decorations are scattered throughout the town centre, an elaborate Nativity scene sits in the middle of the main plaza. Throw in a snow machine and Morecambe & Wise repeats and you'd have yourself a merry little white person's Christmas.

This wouldn't be Bolivia, however, if things weren't a little stop-start, and such is the buildup to Christmas here, the prime obstacle being the small matter of high school graduations. A natural upshot of our involvement in youth ministry is that we are invited to a handful of these every year, and they all take place in early- to mid-December. 

A high-school graduation is a bit like a wedding here. You have your religious ceremony (usually a mass) during which whole classrooms of students receive the relevant paperwork. Friends and family obediently sit quietly through the ceremony with one eye trained squarely on the proceeding merriment in the shape of the graduation meal and attendant festivities, which take place that evening or at some point later in the week.

These ceremonies usually take place in the morning, so with our work commitments, we tend to miss most of these (though Amanda was able to make a brief appearance during the week). But, knowing just how much it means to the youth -- and, boy, do their faces light up when they see us -- we do our best to get to the receptions. 

These have their pros and cons. First of all, an invitation to such bunfights is often accompanied by a crucial elevation in status. We are often approached beforehand to find out if we might be interested in 'sponsoring' an element of the party, say, the table decorations or the customary ring for the graduate. We're all too happy to help in this regard. But the best part is the title which goes along with such a deed: padrinos. This, technically speaking, is a very translation of 'sponsor'. Happily, however, this same work also means 'godparents'. Yes, folks, for one night, and one night only, I am The Godfather. Cue haunting trumpet solo!

Furthermore, such opportunities to doll oneself up are all too rare in this climate, and so we enjoy the chance to don some of our best clobber and take rare photographs of us wearing Nice Clothes, one of which will almost certainly find itself wedged into our next prayer update.

Then there's the dancing. And here, the upsides and downsides reach a point of convergence. Amanda loves nothing more than to strut her stuff on the floor. As for me, I tend to require a little Dutch courage to even consider such a notion, not least here, where a sense of rhythm is seemingly genetic. This option being unavailable (as a rule, we don't consume alcohol outside the home to protect our witness) I sit and pretend to hear what the person next to me is saying. This, too, has its difficulties as, despite usually being gathered in someone's front room, the music is by now reaching volume levels required of rock festivals. 

You may remember such reflections a while back on birthday parties and, alas, the serving of food follows a similar timetable, i.e., a copious meal (which it's considered bad form to refuse) served at some point between midnight and 1am. Given that our main meal of the day is at lunchtime and our bedtime these days is no later than around 10.30pm, this is hardly my definition of fun.

Nonetheless, we attend, and will continue to do so, because of what it means to the many young people we work with to see us there supporting them. And when I'm sat there, half-asleep, half-deaf, wondering what exactly I did to deserve such a fate, I'm reminded that Jesus himself must have frequented a lot of social situations he didn't much fancy either. 

Well, we have a mammoth day of wall-to-wall work/engagements ahead (including, yes, a graduation party, mercifully scheduled for lunchtime) so I'll leave you with some prayer points.

Prayer

• We're now very much entering the final furlong in preparations for the Christmas service on the 23rd. Today we have our first run-through of the programme, followed by a full dress rehearsal next week. Pray for energy and patience, particularly for Amanda, who is very much at the forefront of the logistics, and who will on the evening of the 23rd be required to dive headlong into Christmas lunch preparation (we're planning a post-Christmas break, by the way).
• For progress on the house (where the wall tiling is now completed and the floor tiles are now being laid) and, as last week, the emergence of a buyer for the land we now no longer require. However, we're probably looking to January now for the move.
• For Amanda's recovery from a recent sinus infection.

Praise

• For the opportunity to support so many of our young people these past couple of weeks.

¡Que dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda

Update
Completely forgot to mention a pretty big piece of news this week, that Amanda has been chosen to serve on FT's board. Practically, it means she sits in on the daily morning meetings and is at the forefront of the decision-making process. Pray for wisdom for Amanda as she embarks on this exciting new chapter.