The first Christmas we were here, Keith and I went to a Christmas concert/carol sing in a nearby town. At the end, everyone stood and sang “Glory to God in the Highest!” From memory. It gave me goose bumps. Nearly every Dutch Christmas concert, worship service, or carol singing ends with this echoing of the angles’ words from Luke 2:14.  This year we will not be going anywhere to sing this with any group. The Omicron variant of Covid has reached the Netherlands, and we are once again in lockdown. Our church will not be having face-to-face Christmas services. But we will still be able to give glory to God! 

           Ere zij God in den hoge!                  Glory to God in the highest,

                 Vrede op aarde,                              and on earth peace,

        in de mensen een welbehagen                good will toward men.

You can enjoy hearing this sung at the end of a church concert in the well-known village of Urk

or in Dutch and English sung in a church somewhere in America. 

Wishing you all many glimpses of God's glory this Christmas 

and throughout the coming year,

Mary & Keith 

 

 

 

Home for Christmas

This past Sunday Keith flew to Serbia from Dortmund, Germany. The Dortmund Airport is about an hour
and a half from us, depending on the traffic. On Thursday, I drove back to this airport to pick Keith up and take him home. 

He could have taken public transit home, but I opted to drive the hour and a half-to-two hours to the airport to pick him up. I didn't want him to risk additional exposure on the trains and busses, nor did I want to risk his spreading contagion, even though he had tested negative. 

Now we're both home, and very grateful for everyone who prayed for safe travel. We pray that you will all find a home this Christmas, too. 

So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.   John 1:14 (New Living Translation)

(Photo:  Keith and daughter Ellen, in front of our tree, last Christmas. And yes, they actually did both want sox.)

St. Nicholas . . . returns to Spain??

Every year in November cities and villages around the Netherlands welcome St. Nicholas back with parades and other festivities. Sinterklaas, as he is known locally, comes here on a boat from his home in Spain. 

He rides around from house to house on a white horse. Children set their shoes at night, often with a carrot in them for this horse. His assistant Zwarte Piet helps the elderly bishop Nicholas by actually going down the chimney to take the carrot and leave some sweets and/or a small gift. 

After the feast day of St. Nicholas, December 6, Sinterklaas goes back to Spain for the rest of the year. The night before, December 5, families gather to open packages from St. Nicholas, read the silly poems that go with the disguised packages, and generally have a good time. 

Most elementary school children will have drawn names at school and brought a sometimes elaborately disguised package for their classmates. For instance, our daughters have gotten their gifts hidden in papier-mâché donuts (because donuts are American), large cardboard books (because they liked to read), and have hidden gifts in papier-mâché cows set on green cardboard meadows and large cardboard computers (because the other child liked playing computer games).  On the day that the children are going to open theses packages, Sinterklaas with one or more Piets will make a personal visit to the school. 

We like Sinterklaas. It's good fun (especially when Pete is black with soot and nothing else). It gets the packages out of the way before Christmas. And now we can focus on celebrating Jesus's first arrival here among us. He does not come and go on a steamship. Immanuel, God is still with us!