in their own family mission fields, be ita village, a town, or here in Ouagadou-gou. It’s hard to express the humilitythat I experience here, but I am sothankful to the Lord for revealing myselfish heart in order to minister tothese children through teaching andheed their examples in embracing thecoming of our newborn King. Practicingsongs (many old hymns!) for carolingevery day during FES was very uplift-ing and reminds me of one of my favor-ite more recent Christmas songs. Re-lient K’s ‘I celebrate the day’ instills thecelebration in it’s truest context...
“Icelebrate the day that You wereborn to die so one day I could prayfor You to save my life.”
So as I cele-brate this Advent season and the com-ing of our Savior Jesus Christ, I amoverwhelmed with a thankful heartthat He came into the world to over-come it so that we could be covered byHis grace!
May this Christmas bringyou closer to the joy of Christ and wrap you in His love!
Happy Advent! In the Lutheran church, werecognize four Sundays in Advent, endingthe Sunday before Christmas. At English-speaking church this past Sunday in Oua-gadougou, Burkina Faso, a young shortterm missionary concoted a make-shiftadvent ’wreath’ out of halved plastic sodabottles and white candles. He spoke aboutthe prohesies in the Old Testament of Je-sus’ coming. Advent is taken from theLatin word which means “coming”, repre-senting Jesus Christ becoming flesh amongus. The church year is split in half, begin-ning in Advent and spending the next sixmonths highlighting the life of Christ. Ad-vent is celebrated at the CLET withchapel, but being in Ouagadougou thesepast two weeks and my lack of French andMoba language skills, I have sought outmy own Advent devotional materials tocelebrate the coming of out Savior. TheLord has significantly blessed with thefaith of children in recognizing this joyoustime. Since most of these missionary kidshave spent the majority if not the entiretyof their lives in Africa, Santa is non-existent and commerical Christmas is un-known. They express joyful hearts towardsthe coming of the King. A few faux pas inlearning this about my FES students;math problems that required knowing howmany reindeer drive Santa’s sleigh andattempting to write about what it would belike to visit the North Pole. Oops! I alsothen had to explain why children believe itor why their parents tell them aboutSanta. I had mixed responses, some veryconcerned that everything I said made itseem like telling lies was ok...yikes! I toldthem that sometimes it’s fun to pretendand that Santa is just pretend. I praise theLord for this childlike faith that has notonly blessed me, but also blesses the people
Take Heart, Beloved
“ ‘But you, Bethlehem Eph-rathah, though you are smallamong the clans of Judah,out of you will come for meone who will be ruler overIsrael, whose orgins are fromold, from ancient times.’...Hewill stand and shepherd Hisflock in the strength of theLord, in the majesty of thename of the Lord His God. And they will live securely,for then His greatness willreach to the ends of theearth.
And He will betheir peace
.”Micah 5:2, 4-5
Togo!Togo!Togo!Togo!
An insight into the ministry of LCMS Long-term missionaryMegan Birney serving Christ in Togo, West Africa
December 2008
Pictures! Above: Colt, Josh, and Caleb withthe gifts of the Magi. Below: FES caroling atthe US Embassay of Burkina Faso.
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December Newsletter 08
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