Christmas at the University

            Shortly after Thanksgiving, the rector (president) of our university paid us a visit in our office. As we began to unpack a few of our normal Thanksgiving traditions, the rector posed a question: “You celebrate Christmas, right?” Moments later he invited us to do the unexpected: plan and host a Christmas program for the entire university. You know. That’s only 18,000 students, give or take.

            To our relief, the party was nowhere near that size. To our great joy, we had an impressive turn-out of students and faculty, with nearly 500 participants. We crowded a long breezeway with tables full of crafts, cookie decorating, and coloring pages of the true story of Christmas. A few believing Khmer friends came and shared the story with students as they came through. We also sang carols (with a rousing rendition of “The Twelve Days of Christmas”), enjoyed candy canes, and even posed for a picture with Santa Claus!

            This was an incredible opportunity, an open door into being able to tell our students just why this holiday is of such great importance to us. It was a great gift to us to share the Great Gift with them.

-R

The Helpers