A Little Taste of the Old Christmas

My favourite Christmas memories usually revolve around church activities. Serving at banquets, helping with events welcoming the community to celebrate Christ's birth, working with kids, and the laughter and fun that comes along with those things. Today I got a taste of the old Christmas.

Today was my third Sunday attending a church in Basingstoke. This morning the church organized an event for the community instead of holding a regular church service. It was their first time organizing an event like this, though the church I attended as a teenager held many such events so it brought back lots of wonderful memories. They brought people through the church in groups of 20 or 30 and there were different "stations" - one with Mary's mother speaking about her excitement about becoming a grandma, another with a centurian talking about the census, King Herod talking about killing the baby boys under the age of two (the kids' eyes were huge!), the inn-keeper's wife, a shepherd, and it ended in the parking lot with a petting zoo set up with miniature donkeys, goats, geese, pigs, chickens, and the accompanying chaos.

When I called to organize a ride last night (a couple at church insists on picking me up or arranging a ride for me) I told them I'd be happy to be put to work this morning. When I walked in the door, the pastor pointed at me and said, "You want a job, right?"

I loved being involved in the event. It was a great opportunity to meet more people at church and get involved with serving. A few people made joking comments about how I was being put to work so quickly but that's honestly when I'm happiest - I hate standing around feeling useless when there's something that needs to be done. It's also a great way to meet people at church because they notice when a stranger is helping!

The couple who gave me a ride invited me to lunch and I had such a great visit with them! Maggie hadn't planned anything for lunch so we ended up eating kind of late into the afternoon and by the time 4:30 rolled around they asked if I wanted to just stay until 6:00 and attend the candle-lit service. I headed back to church with them and it was great to see the tongue-in-cheek health-and-safety version of a candle-lit service: glow sticks passed out to each person! Somehow standing shoulder-to-shoulder in a room full of people with candles held in each hand provides a far more beautiful connection but the glow sticks gave a humerous and modern slant on the idea.

Tea, coffee and cookies were distributed on trays after the service. I asked if they needed help and was promptly handed a tray of coffee to carry around.... and that's when I experienced one of my favourite "firsts" in England. I approached an older man I've seen at church before and asked if he wanted a cup of coffee. As he took a cup he said, "I love the Canadian accent. You can just stay here and keep talking as long as you want."

I've had people make comments about recognizing my accent as being Canadian, or even saying that they like the Canadian accent, but it cracked me up to hear somebody say they just wanted to listen to me speak! Normally I'm on the admiring side of an accent, but it's nice to be on the receiving end for once! It's absurd for a comment like that to make me feel fabulous, but it seriously made my day.