Jack and Emma*, an Australian couple, are spending this year in a village in China. They are there teaching English, and are taking what opportunities they can to share the good news about Jesus with the people they come into contact with. Jack speaks about celebrating Christmas in China:

A “Peace fruit” gift bag would be filled with peanuts, melon seeds, and a small mandarin orange.

There is no Christmas Day holiday – it is like a normal work day in that regard and we will be teaching on that day but taking holidays shortly after Christmas. The school has even scheduled the Year 12 exams for Christmas Day!

Christmas Eve has some special traditions though with most of the kids and you need to know some Chinese to explain so:

Christmas eve (literally peace eve)
平 安 夜ping​ an ​ye (pronunciation)

‘Ping an’ means peace and the first character “ping” is similar to the word for apple (below).

Apple
苹 果ping​ guo

Because of this, the kids at the school give each other apples on Christmas Eve (we are sure to receive a lot of apples as well!).

The kids don’t know any Christmas songs unless they have been to some special Christmas Eve church service but some of them have heard Jingle Bells before. We have been teaching them Silent Night (18 classes x 70 kids) and told them all about the proper Christmas story last week. We also played them one of Bible Society Australia’s animations about the shepherds. It is a great opportunity.

On Christmas Eve, the local church is putting on an evangelical performance; which will include various items from the members of the church. This will include singing, dancing and acting. The culture is very much into singing and dancing (not just kids, but everyone). At the church they will sing some Christmas songs which we are looking forward to as well.

In one way the Christmas is similar to Oz in that many people will go to church just on Christmas Eve; but it might be the only time all year that they go.

This is a town of about 700,000 but there is only one church, so it seems there are few Christians here; but He is looking after that.

(*names have been changed)

Yu Kai, a 28 year old Chinese Christian recounts how Christmas was celebrated by a small church congregation in the outskirts of Beijing City

In October each year, our small congregational choir would begin to plan for performances like songs and dances to celebrate Christmas. Each week, we would practice after Sunday service then enjoy a simple lunch and dinner in church together. Our food was simple, plain buns made from white flour. We ate, laughed and chatted, happy to be able to enjoy God’s Grace and Love when doing God’s work.

Yu Kai (young lady in white)

Even though our performance was simple, the elderly brothers-and-sisters-in-Christ would devote all their time and efforts to prepare for the Christmas program. Sometimes they would share their inner struggles of inadequacies and unworthiness to sing for the Lord. But I knew that deep down inside, they felt privileged to be involved in serving God with all their love and strength; and that the Lord will value their hearts and dedication. I remembered one year, we had a joint Christmas praise concert with another church in Beijing. A group of us practiced until 2 am in the morning.

Winter in Beijing was bitterly cold and that early morning, the temperature was freezing. However, we felt only joy when we thought of working for the Lord and privileged that we would have this opportunity to serve Him. What always touched me greatly during Christmas time in China is the constant reminder of this verse in the Bible, “… Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the most important commandment. The second most important commandment is like it: Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” (Matt 22:37,39  (GNT)).

One year, we rented the hall of an office building for a Christmas Eve party. We put up bright red and green garlands with paper-cut flowers to decorate the windows and prepared peanuts and melon seeds for snacks. Then we put some peanuts, melon seeds, and a small mandarin orange into small bags and gave them as gifts to everyone who came for the Christmas Eve party. We named the gift bag “Peace Fruit” in Chinese (平安果). Each guest would be blessed with the “Peace Fruit” when they come to the party. In this way, we used this as an opportunity to share the gospel and welcome non-believers warmly, hoping that they too can experience God’s peace.

That year, we had a total of 400 guests at the party. Christmas for me is a time to reflect on the year that has passed and to look forward to the New Year. I give thanks to God every time I think about how He chose to come down to earth in human form to bring salvation to man. I have so many relatives and friends who have yet to know God – well, I still have a lot of work to do, for the Glory of God. (Story from the UBS China Partnership, Translated by Eileen Sung and Edited by Ms. Yeo Tan Tan and Pamela Choo)

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Featured image: flickr_by jimmiehomeschoolmom