The Peace Place: The Joy of Giving!

The Peace Place had our Christmas party last Friday and boy was it fun! Through the whole month of December during out worship time each week we learned Christmas carols and learned about the Christmas story. And when I say LEARNED, I mean LEARNED. I got some funny answers on the first week when I asked what Christmas was about and what the kids knew about Jesus' birth... and I definitely sang Christmas carols by myself for a while because the only ones the kids knew were "Rudolf" and "Jingle Bells" and we wanted to sing carols about Christ. However, the great thing about kids is that they love to learn and learn quickly. By the third week I was hanging out with one child outside of the Peace Place and they were telling me all about how Christmas is really about Jesus birth and how "some people" don't even know that! And while hanging out with another child I heard them singing Silent Night. How beautiful! Since we had been learning that at Christmas we celebrate the gift God gave us, I wanted to teach the kids to be givers like God, instead of greedy at Christmas. With the help of ideas from my pastor and Mr.Bill I think we were able to do that. On the last Monday that we met the kids made and wrapped different little gifts to give away to family and friends and they also put together toiletry baskets to take to the Twin City Mission, a homeless shelter in Bryan. On Friday during our party we went to the Mission to deliver the toiletries and sang Christmas Carols with the residents. I wasn't sure how this was going to turn out, but thought no matter what happened it would be a good learning experience. Well, it was a hit- both with the residents and our kids. When we were leaving I heard all kinds of things such as: "If I had lots of money, I would buy all of those people houses" (from a girl who lives with her grandma), "We did a good job- they liked us!" (from a shy little girl), "When I grow up, I'm going to be a singer" (from a tough 3rd grade boy), "Some of the people in the back looked sad before I would give them a hug, but then when I hugged them it would make them smile- we made them happy"..... What a joy to learn to be a blessing to other people! Other highlights of our party included pizza, The Christmas story, a gift exchange, wrestling like crazy people, Jesus' Birthday cookie, and spinning around under the giant Christmas light tree at Central Park. It was a blast!

Pizza