Ps Albert was busy fetching church members who had no transport with the church van. Since Vilman had gone back to Sabah and that nobody else volunteered, Ps Albert had to take over the driver's job. I followed him once to pick a family in town after his morning service in Sungai Udang. Then we went to the afternoon service in Ayer Keroh. The distances between the places were long. And I doubt if he had any lunch break. I would like to give him a hand but I was not confident of driving a big vehicle. The help I could offer so far was still in the Hospitality Ministry.
I purposely dressed up in a red and black to fit the Christmas theme.
Sarma, who was tall and slim, always looked nice in whatever she was wearing.
The service finally started at around 9pm with the worship.
We sang Christmas songs in English and BM to celebrate the birth of our Lord.
Then, Ps Albert asked those who had been born in December to raise their hands and he announced that I was also a birthday star. So, the whole congregation sang a birthday song to me.
When Marten talked about the progress of his health and sang solo to testify his faith in God, it was another touching moment.
CLA members from the Sungai Udang outreach also presented a song on stage to cheer up the festive atmosphere even more.
When I was in France, I followed Nicole and Ernest to the Christmas Eve service in their Catholic church in cold winter. After that, people went back to their respective houses to have the dinner party. Here, the pot bless dinner was part of the programme. I was too busy to fill my hungry stomach with three types of rice and many kinds of nice food, namely fish, chicken, pork, wildboar meat and vegetables, cooked by our sisters, and guava slices prepared by Sarma, that my camera had no chance to witness those mouth-watering dishes. Later, I gave out small packets of cookies that I had baked to children.
The service ended by the showing of a sequence of a film. It was about the birth of Jesus Christ to remind us that God loved the world so much that He gave his one and only Son to save the world through Him (John 3:16-17).
My best Christmas gift this year was the fellowship with my brothers and sisters in Christ.
To Ps Albert, it must be the arrival of his beloved wife and two other dear children from Sabah the previous night. Now the blessed family was complete with six charming members.
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