Nabila, a fresh college graduate, bubbles over in enthusiasm about her ministry to Sudanese children on the outskirts of Cairo. Each Wednesday afternoon, she and several others meet together in front of their large church. They pile into a van and drive about an hour to an area where many Sudanese refugees live. There, the team divides up to hold Bible classes in a church for Sudanese refugees.

Nabila is responsible for a class of 25 ten-year-olds.
“I have always attended church regularly;” Nabila shares, “but now, working with these children, I have felt a huge leap in my spiritual life.” The Bibles, she explains, are to be used as prizes for a competition they have been holding. Will the children read them? “Yes,” Nabila is sure of it. Nabila is grateful for affordable Scripture resources. “We come to the Bible Society for all our supplies. I love the coloring books, and all the children’s materials.”

You can impact the lives of Sudanese Refugees, young Egyptians, Prisoners and their families, the Handicapped, the Illiterate, and goodness knows how many others by giving them hope and the knowledge of a God that loves them and cares for them. This is the same group of people that work among the “garbage Village that we have spoken about before where they also offer help by providing food and clothes.

If you are looking for alternative Christmas gift ideas this season why not think of a gift that will make a huge difference in Egypt? The Bible Society of Egypt would like to draw your attention to our 10-Bibles-a-Month Club: www.tenbibles.com

An idea is to give the gift of God’s Word on behalf of a loved one. It’s a great way to honor each other and celebrate the world’s Greatest Gift – the Word of God became flesh and dwelt among us….

It isn’t wrong to have things or to be rich. But it is wrong to be ungrateful for what we have and complain. We don’t need to feel guilty for having material things such as the things seen in this video clip. But it is wrong when we don’t do our part to help alleviate the suffering in the world. We cannot do everything and God doesn’t ask us to. But we are responsible for the piece of the puzzle that God gives us to take care of. Even though you are young you can do your part. Look at some of the Yopps heard sections of the Blog. and see what other kids have done.

When Jesus comes back He isn’t going to ask us, “Were you a part of the largest church?” or “Did you get 100% on your math test?” or “Did you use your abilities to entertain a lot of people?” These are not wrong things at all. BUT in the long run the little things that show what your heart is like win out in significance. They are all the kinds of things that YOU can do! Look around you and take a hold of the piece of the puzzle that God has highlighted to you.

Lets have a look at Mathew and the story of: the Sheep and the Goats
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’

Amon from Rwanda had a dream. God has a dream.What is your dream? With God’s help you can do what ever He asks you to do and make a difference.

• Ask the Lord Jesus to highlight some one this Christmas season.
• Ask Him what you can do for that person or situation in Jesus name.
• Ask Him to let you really KNOW him, because when you do you will want to act just like He does.

Why I dreaded Christmas

The meat was gone. Celestin was not willing to serve ‘borrowers’. We were doomed; another painful Christmas. But, oh well, this was just another of those many Christmases. We were getting used to them, or so we thought.

As soon as I arrived home from the butcher’s shop I started crying. Papa had talked to Celestin the night before. He had explained to him how he (Papa) had not been paid by the tea factory for almost three months. He wanted to borrow some meat for his children for Christmas. It was well known in the village that every butcher had some meat left at the end of the day. But not this Christmas of 1987. I was 12. I arrived at Celestin’s butchery at around 6:00 AM. I was the first customer to arrive. I waited.I watched Celestin and his friend Paul grab the bull by the horns, lay it on the ground, and skin its thick brown coat off. It was Christmas in the making. I couldn’t wait. Paul grabbed the thigh by its bone and ran a three-cord string through it. He mounted it on a tall eucalyptus tree and started chopping at it. By that time many children had arrived, some with their parents, others with their big brothers or sisters. I started wondering how many of them had money and how many were here to borrow a kilo or two. Paul started chopping off pieces of the Christmas delight and laying them on a brown, and slightly rusted, weighing scale, the size of an old record player… One kilo, two kilos, one after the other. He chopped the thigh to the bone and was ready for the next one. Mrs. Celestin was seated quietly on his three-legged stool pocketing old and new shilling notes from the shoppers. If the whole thing could be sold in one day, Mr. and Mrs. Celestin would walk away with more than fifty thousand shillings. That was a lot of money back in 1987’s Uganda.

The third piece of Christmas was gone and customers were still arriving- with lots of cash, mostly old notes stacked away for 12 months in preparation for Christmas. Others were waving new notes from the bank. These were mostly teachers and other civil servants. I waited. The sun began to turn yellow. The clouds gathered. Paul chopped. Paul chopped away the last piece of Christmas. Mrs. Celestin pocketed the notes. The meat was gone. Nothing left for the borrower.

I looked around to make sure I was not missing anything. Tears started to form in my eyes. A big and dark lump of sadness grabbed at my throat. This was one of those Christmases where the poor had no chance to celebrate.

I slowly eased out of the happy crowd and headed home. My mother saw me first and knew something was wrong. “What’s up Muneneza?”, she inquired. “You don’t look happy”. And how could I. The greatest day in the year 1987 was slipping away. And the greatest gift was gone; gone to those who had the money to spend.

This young boy is now grown up and there are still children all over the world with no Christmas diner or meals many days of the year. The name of this boy is Amon and he wrote this story. He was Rwandeese but fled Rwanda and grew up in a refugee camp in Uganda. But he had a dream of getting out of this poverty, going to school and making a difference in Africa. Since he understood the sadness of standing outside… hungry, watching others have Christmas, or going to school and not being invited in, he is now able to do something about it. He invites you to participate in his dream.
You can check out his website www.africamissionalliance.org

Be an answer to this little boy’s dream. Let him hear Merry Christmas this year in his own language!

How To Say Merry Christmas In Africa

In Kinyarwanda (Rwanda) Noheli Nziza
In Luganda (Uganda) Haleluya Haleluya or Sekukulu eyessanyu
In Kirundi (Burundi) Noheli NzizaIn Akan (Ghana) Afishapa
In Zimbabwe Merry Kisimusi
In Afrikaans (South Africa) Geseënde Kersfees
In Zulu (South Africa) Sinifisela Ukhisimusi Omuhle
In Swazi (Swaziland) Sinifisela Khisimusi Lomuhle
In Sotho (Lesthoto) Matswalo a Morena a Mabotse
In Swahili (Tanzania, Kenya) Kuwa na Krismasi njema
In Amharic (Ethiopia) Melkam Yelidet Beaal
In Egyptian (Egypt) Colo sana wintom tiebeen
In Yoruba (Nigeria) E ku odun, e hu iye’ du

Right now in Canada there is a problem. A month ago there was an election and the Conservative Government came into power. Stephen Harper is the Leader of the conservative party. However, now about 6 weeks later the party put forth a plan to be voted on. One of the ideas in the plan was that each Member of Parliament would not get the $1.95 that they received for each vote that they had in the election. This money would be used for other things instead. Mr. Harper said that they wanted to lead by example in being more careful with money, because it is a difficult time financially and we all need to be careful.
The leaders of the other party didn’t like that so they came together and are trying to push the Conservative party out of power. They can do that if they all come together against him. This is not the way we act here in Canada and it has made a lot of people very upset.
Now there is another leader in Canada, a representative of the Queen of England who actually will have the power to say if they can bring down the government or not. Her name is Michaelle Jean. So we would like to ask you to pray for Canada.

1. Pray for Governor-General Michaelle Jean as she meets with her advisers about the important decisions she needs to make in the days ahead. Pray that the Holy Spirit would guide her. Put your hand on the picture of Michelle Jean as you pray.

2. Take out a map of Canada, if you don’t have one just google image and ask for Canada map. As you look all over the map, pray for calm and safety throughout the land. There are many angry people and let’s pray that as various demonstrations take place that peace and order would be observed and that there would be no violence that would cause personal injury or property damage.

3.Pray that the potential divisions in our land would actually be healed at this time. Hold hands together and pray in the opposite spirit for unity instead of division.

4.Pray that all party leaders and members would learn and grow through this crisis. Pray that God would give them a love for each other and help them see the BIG picture. Ask the Father to stop every attempt that the enemy is trying to use to harm our nation and the government. STOUT STOP

5. Pray for each of the party leaders that they would resist the desire for more power and not be greedy. Pray that they would be an example of humility and servant hood.
Today give something you value away to someone else to act out this prayer.

6. Let’s stand in the gap for the leaders in Canadathat each one involved would be able to receive godly wisdom and act in a responsible manner.
Pray that righteousness and justice and peace would win out in the end.

7.Pray that the things in Canada that are not right would be shaken out.

(You know the song, shake your sillies out? Well God wants the sillies to be shaken out of Canada so that only what is good remains.) Sing this sing now and ask God to do just that.
Then sing the song. “We want to see Jesus lifted High” and make it a prayer for Canada.
Read 2 Chronicles 20: 18 and 2.1What did Jehoshaphat do when he was confronted with a BIG problem? He sent out worshipers at the head of the army. Pretty strange tactic. BUT it let everyone know WHOM they trusted. So sing again and think of another chorus that declares who God is!

8. Pray for the media, the news reports on T.V. and the radio and newspapers. (Take out a newspaper and pray these prayers for the people that write and report the news.)

Pray that they would:

• be careful to
• represent the truth and
• not take advantage of the situation.

9. Especially pray for the Speaker of the House - the honourable Peter Milliken as he presides over the debates. Pray that M.P.s who are followers of Jesus Christ would set a higher tone and be a good example in their conduct and conversation.