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Close your eyes, breathe, and clear your mind. Be still. Center your scattered senses on God’s presence.

REFLECTION: Written by Irene Dickson (Part 1)

My dad was a miner in the coal pits on the east coast of Scotland. Christmas Day was not an official holiday until 1958, and most folks worked unless Christmas fell on a weekend. When I was 5, and my sister was a week old, my dad left to work in the mines on the Gold Coast of Africa. My mom, sister Elaine, and I followed him a few weeks later and we spent the next 10 years on that continent where my dad worked in the Ashanti Gold Mines in Ghana, in the copper mines in the Ruwenzori mountains of Uganda, and at the construction of a hydroelectric power station at the Kariba Dam in Zambia.

Like many Christians in remote areas of the world today, we celebrated Christmas in any way we could. There were no department stores, many foods were difficult to get, and of course nothing came by mail except for trinkets and candy for my sister and me, along with dried potatoes and other necessities that were ‘smuggled’ in newspapers-the Sunday Post and the East Fife Mail-sent by relatives from Scotland. Christmas Day was spent at the community pool, along with all the other ex-pat families-many from the same area in Scotland as us. In Kilembe, Uganda, there was an Anglican Church. All were welcome and at Christmas time I remember the beautiful African voices singing our favorite carols accompanied by traditional African instruments mostly made by hand from sticks and animal skins. (Continued tomorrow). 

SCRIPTURE: Psalm 96:9-10

Worship the Lord in the splendor of hisholiness; tremble before him, all the earth. Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns.” The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity.

Pause and meditate on the Scripture.

PRAYER:  The O Antiphons are used at Vespers of the last 7 days of Advent in Western Christian traditions. The exact origin of the O Antiphons is not known but Boethius (480-524) referenced them. This translation is from the Church of England’s Book of Common Worship liturgy.

O Adonai, and leader of the House of Israel, who appeared to Moses in the fire of the burning bush and gave him the law on Sinai: Come and redeem us with an outstretched arm.

Click on the link to see and hear the music video.

MUSIC VIDEO:  God’s Grace Orphanage Nakawuka, Uganda: Merry Christmas

IMAGE: Church in Kilembe, Uganda (Submitted by Irene Dickson)