As you read this, Jennifer Foster of Stand Out Ministries is traveling from North Carolina to Brazil. You might remember Jennifer from a previous post, where we highlighted her ministry to the unreached tribes of the Amazon. Through generous gifts from her supporters and supporters of Feed the Hunger, Jennifer is taking meal packets and Bibles (provided in part by your year-end Where Needed Most gifts) to a flood-ravaged tribe that heard the gospel for the first time on her previous visit.
However, sharing food and Bibles (though both are desperately needed) is only part of her visit. While there, she will have an opportunity to do something few, if any, of us have ever done: tell the Christmas story to people who have never heard it. Think about that. They will be hearing the beginning of the greatest story ever told for the very first time. Try to place yourself in their position.
You would first have to set aside all the things we commonly associate with Christmas but are not part of the story. Imagine you’ve never heard of a Christmas tree or Santa Claus; you don’t know any Christmas carols; you’ve never seen snow; you have no mental picture of a heavenly host or even of children dressed as angels in the church Christmas pageant. What does that leave, then? It leaves Christmas in its purest sense.
In many ways, you would be like the shepherds in the hills surrounding Bethlehem that night who were surprised and terrified at the sight of the angel of the Lord. They had no concept of Christmas. Even the word “Christmas” wouldn’t appear until more than a thousand years later. Despite their lack of tradition, the shepherds quickly came to Bethlehem to see what had taken place, glorifying God once they had seen Jesus for themselves.
In America, it is nearly impossible to find someone – even an unbeliever – who has no knowledge of Christmas. In fact, many of us have an idealized view of the holiday that looks a lot like a Normal Rockwell painting, complete with rosy-cheeked children singing “Silent Night,” hot cocoa, and a big pile of presents under the tree.
The traditional image of Christmas we have is comforting and often brings back warm memories from years gone by. Yet, for all these “extras” surrounding Christmas (good as they may be), we share with the newly reached Amazonian tribes the same central story: through His love and redemptive mercy, God sent Jesus to earth (“…the Word became flesh and dwelt among us”) to save us from our sins through His blood.
Of course, hearing the Christmas story for the first time can produce some lighthearted moments as well. Jennifer tells how the first tribe she visited reacted when they heard the Biblical account of Jesus’ birth. A couple of days after hearing the story, a few of the people in the tribe had constructed a small nativity scene, complete with baby Jesus in a hammock! They explained that they didn’t know what a manger was, so they assumed (naturally) that Mary and Joseph had placed Jesus in one of their hammocks they had brought for the journey to Bethlehem.
As we put up the decorations and turn off the Christmas music over the next few days, keep the Amazonian tribe in your prayers, that they would receive the story of our Savior’s birth and begin to grow spiritually over the next year. Also, remember Jennifer as she delivers physical and spiritual nourishment to the tribe, that she would be greatly used by God to accomplish His purpose in Brazil.
Matthew Byrd | Ministry Advancement Team