Merry Christmas!

It's Christmastime in the city. Nairobi does Christmas with Santas, break, and food. The santas range from the fat white Coke billboard to the African man dressed in a red suit, white beard, and red fuzzy cowboy hat outside Westgate; offices' breaks typically last from a week before Christmas to a few days after New Years'--we had a pretty typical one at the Across office from 18th to 4th. And the food is chapatti. Already before school closed the games teacher was worried about the soccer team's likely weight gain over break.
I've had most of December off from teaching, and I came to Nairobi to work with Across, an organization that works as a church and community resource in Southern Sudan, seeking Christ-centered transformation. I helped somewhat setting up a website. It is strange to work on a website, the face of an organization, with an organization whose face you've not seen for more than 3 weeks. But there was a surprising face--my boss was from Hollandale, MN, where we lived for four years ('96-'00). I mostly was just a reminder that the website was a priority. And I got to nag our web design company that we hired. I'll link to the website once it's live early January. Across was a very cool community to be a part of, seeing some people working hard on the theology and reason for Across' existence, seeing others giving this theology hands and feet as they worked with communities.
For we are the body of Christ. One body spread over many lands, many people, sometimes tripping over its size, sometimes timid in its rarity. And we remember this Christmas a body born to us, the Christ our betrothed whose body we now are. God-with-us makes us with God. May we be represent that remaker of the world in the peace that passes understanding, the joy that is complete, the hope of a way through the desert, and the love that will not let us go.