{"id":30374,"date":"2014-10-10T21:01:47","date_gmt":"2014-10-11T02:01:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/anticipation_10_10_2014_141\/"},"modified":"2014-10-10T21:01:47","modified_gmt":"2014-10-11T02:01:47","slug":"anticipation_10_10_2014_141","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/anticipation_10_10_2014_141\/","title":{"rendered":"Anticipation…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here in Kalkfeld the energy is palpable. Christmas is just around the corner. But it is not Santa the children are talking about. Santa and presents and what they want for Christmas has not come up once.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Here in Kalkfeld the energy is palpable.\u00a0 Christmas is just around the corner.\u00a0 But it is not Santa the children are talking about.\u00a0 Santa and presents and what they want for Christmas has not come up once.\u00a0 I am sure at home they are being swamped with the messages on television.\u00a0 I saw a five-page-spread-full-color-advertisement insert for the newspaper.\u00a0 It showed all the things you could ever desire, and all those things you definitely cannot live without; all the many things that their families cannot even afford to want.\u00a0 It said \u2013 \u201cThe Good News is Here!\u201d<\/p>\n

But that is not what the children are talking about.\u00a0 Instead it is the church activities we have been enjoying.\u00a0 How refreshing.\u00a0 From the time I first arrived here the children have been begging for Sunday School.\u00a0 Last year a volunteer led Sunday School but had to stop when her mother became ill.\u00a0 The children not only remembered the Bible stories from the book she was reading, they showed me the page she stopped on six months before.\u00a0 Last year they acted out a Nativity play to narration.\u00a0 This year when I asked what traditions the church observed during Advent the only answer I got from the children or the adults was the Nativity play.\u00a0 And the children made it clear, not only would there be a Nativity play (\u201cPLEASE Pastor!\u201d), but this year \u201cwe want to talk\u201d- they wanted to learn and say the lines themselves.<\/p>\n

There are only 7 children here.\u00a0 There are over a dozen parts in a Nativity play if you do the whole story from angelic messages to Mary and Joseph to Magi.\u00a0 So they are doubling up on the parts.\u00a0 Their ages are 13, 12, 9, 8, 7, 5, and 5.\u00a0 Their ability to speak English and\/or Afrikaans and stage fright varies by child from day to day.\u00a0 And I am not director material.\u00a0 But we started early in November\u2013 they insisted so they could learn their lines.\u00a0 They are very eager.\u00a0 And it is coming together beautifully.\u00a0 It looks more like a play and less like an attempt to organize chaos each time.\u00a0 They are even each other\u2019s understudies.\u00a0 Five of the seven have been gone during many of the rehearsals.\u00a0 But they know each other\u2019s lines and want to practice even if there are only 3 of the 7 present.<\/p>\n

It is their play.\u00a0 They learn their lines at home.\u00a0 They organized the \u201ccrew\u201d work on stage after I gave them suggestions the first day.\u00a0 There is no mother in the wings coaching them on changing their costumes.\u00a0 They are doing it all themselves.\u00a0 I get to do the narrator part, and remind them to speak louder, slower and to the audience.\u00a0 They are incredible.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, they are also enjoying absorbing the meaning of Advent like sponges, as they do every part of the Christian story.\u00a0 They made stars (Hope), Advent Candles and Advent Calendars (Peace), tissue paper flowers (Love) and Chrismons (they know the meaning of all the symbols we made) for the trees (Joy).\u00a0 They have made a set of the former and latter for every household and the sanctuary, and will give the flowers to the elders on Christmas.\u00a0 Every day we do a little more preparation.\u00a0 Each week they decide what will go up and where to decorate the sanctuary.\u00a0 This Advent may be the best \u201canticipation\u201d I have ever done.<\/p>\n

Rev. Dr. Loletta Barrett<\/a>, serves with the Namibia Synod of the UCCSA in \u00a0Kalkveld, \u00a0Namibia.\u00a0 She serves as a pastor.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

Blog: www.LolettainNamibia.blogspot.com<\/a><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here in Kalkfeld the energy is palpable. Christmas is just around the corner. But it is not Santa the children are talking about. Santa and presents and what they want for Christmas has not come up once. Here in Kalkfeld … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20028,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false},"categories":[],"topic":[20237],"region":[20007,20063],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAnticipation... - Global Ministries<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/anticipation_10_10_2014_141\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Anticipation... - Global Ministries\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here in Kalkfeld the energy is palpable. Christmas is just around the corner. But it is not Santa the children are talking about. 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