Crosslinks - Christmas Presents |
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Features by Bill & Sara Goodman (ex Crosslinks Ethiopia) - observations on life from Ethiopia
Christmas Presents
Remember Christmas? This is how it went for one single-parent family here:
"Dad, we would like you to give us our Christmas present early this year. And this year, we don't want you to buy us anything - please just give us the money."
The two girls' father (one of our Ethiopian teachers here at the Seminary) was surprised by their request, and a little disappointed. But in the end he agreed, and gave his daughters the cash he would have spent on buying them presents.
On Christmas Eve, the two daughters asked their father to drive them into town. He waited, mystified, as they stopped at a bakery and bought sacks full of bread and bottles of milk - spending all the money he had given them. They then drove around town, stopping outside some of the churches where people were queuing up to beg. The girls had decided to spend all the
money on giving a Christmas gift of bread and milk to poorer people.
(Bill and Sara Goodman Feb 2002)
The Goodmans were Crosslinks' Mission Partners working in Ethiopia