Christmas?!?

I have to admit, when I left for South Sudan in September, there were certain things that I knew I was not going to miss being thousands of miles away from my home and country.  All of the election hoop-la was one of them.  The other one was walking through stores and seeing Santa Clause everywhere and hearing Christmas songs on the radio- in October.  Don't get me wrong, Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year, if not the favorite.  I love playing and sledding in the snow, drinking some hot chocolate, being with family and friends, watching Christmas movies, and ending Christmas night building a fort and watching Home Alone with my cousins (yes we are all in our 20's and 30's, yes we quote most of the movie and still laugh hysterically, yes I know, we're pretty awesome).  These things and more I will definitely miss, just not the over-hype of everything.  I thought for sure I was safeguarded all the way in South Sudan.  About that....

For the past couple of weeks, I have been asked constantly about how the election was going and who was winning.  They follow it pretty closely and loved hearing from "Luke from America" about how things were going back home.  However, it was in a completely different context than back home.  They asked not because it really effected them, or because they didn't know the answer, or because they were a democrat or republican and wanted to give their views on fixing the country.  They asked because it was something they could ask that we both had knowledge about and in the end, they would know more about me.  They asked because they cared about me.  They asked out of love.  

I couldn't completely get away from the election, but I thought for sure that there was absolutely now way Christmas would dominate the life and culture here and I wouldn't hear anything Christmas until Advent. Well, last week as I was walking from basketball to the rosary "Silent Night" filled up the night skies.  Again, it was a completely context though than what I am used to though.  The choir had started practicing the songs for Christmas mass almost two months ahead of time and preparations for the big day had begun.  Roles have been assigned and Christmas spirit is filling the air.  There hasn't been one mention of the word Santa, presents, Christmas trees or anything secular.  They are starting preparations this early because Christmas is all about celebrating the birth of the most important person to ever walk this Earth- nothing more.  He deserves two months of preparations and lots of hard work.  One person stated that "the feast of St. Vincent de Paul was very special, but nothing is more special than the birth of Jesus, so we need to prepare and make it perfect- just like Jesus was."  Everything done to prepare for Christmas is out of love- love for Jesus.  The more I experiecnce the culture in South Sudan, the more l see that everything done here is out of love.  Love for God and love for each other.  They are perfect living examples of Luke 10:27- And I love it.