The truck     The truck must have taken some people offguard when it passed their houses. Not because there were 15 people sitting in the back of a truck, that's normal, but because the sound that came from it was not a radio, but a dozen loud voices. We had started to sing the Thai-English medleys of Christmas carols together as practice for our carolling stops, but it quickly switched to renditions of farmiliar sunday school songs and worship songs. We stopped at a pastor's house, another orphanage, a missionaries house and some elders from the church. At each place we had a snack and talked or mimed after we sang. This was admittedly my first carolling experience, but I doubt any others could ever top it.

     Christmas Eve was the night we had all been waiting for. Waiting and praying, cutting out cardboard snowmen, practicing skits and dances, handing out invitations and making piles and piles of food. Every year Sila Home sets up a makeshift stage in the cow field and invites everyone for dinner and a Christmas show. We didn't really know what to expect. The time came for dinner and people started trickling in. Ten at first, then thirty, then one hundred. Parked motorcycles lined the edge of the field. Finally, greetings were extended from the stage and people filled almost all of the 270 borrowed chairs. The worship team began, and people still came - mothers with babies strapped to their backs, elderly women and young men, Buhdist, Animist, transgender, drunk... Haden and I had the same thought at the same time - we needed more places for people to sit, and fast. The thistly cow field at night isn't exactly the best place to sit, and the show was a couple hours from over. In minutes unused car tires, rocks, bamboo and firewood were arranged nicely to seat another hundred people! Dances and skits were coupled with draw prizes for a full night. Every one got to hear the Christmas story. My team performed the lifehouse everything skit, and from one account in the audience, there were a lot of tears. 

 

     After the Christmas Eve show, my team and I did not go to sleep. We were busy playing Santa, wrapping an labelling gifts for all 45 kids and staff. They weren't much - hairbands, notebooks, socks and candy, but it was an worthwhile effort at six the next morning when all the kids ran in to find a package with their name on it on the floor. After they had opened their present the kids got a special treat from rice for breakfast, dry toast and an egg. The day was filled with games and festivities. For dinner we sat in small groups around a clay pot filled with hot coals and cooked ourselves each dozens of meatballs. Best Christmas dinner ever.

 

     New Years Eve in Thailand is kind of a big deal, especially since most people pay little attention to Christmas. At Sila Home it is a cherished day to relax. On New Years Eve we all ate together outside, sitting on a tarp, and then, following tradition we watched three movies outside back to back - The Smirfs, Kung Fu Panda 2 and a Thai comedy. All the kids were so exhausted and it was cold that at least twenty of us curled up on the floor under a strew of blankets. At eleven we gathered together and worshiped, then played a Secret Santa-like game where we al traded 80 cent gifts. At midnight we counted down - saam, song, nung, Happy New Year! The year 2555 had begun. Firecrackers went off everywhere around us and sky lanterns drifted across every horizon (yes, the things from Tangled). 

 

     In the morning, on New Years Day, people from they neighbourhood started to file onto the Sila home property. Arunee, Nicharee and I served them pineapple cookies and cold Thai tea and then they sat to wait for what they'd signed up their children for... an Operation Christmas Child Box! We gave out close to 150 of them. The kids were thrilled and people saw that Christians do care for them.

      My team and some of the older kids from Sila Home also went to a New Years party in a Lahu hill tribe nearby. We ate dinner with a Christian family in their stilted bamboo house. Then we went to the village center (there are about 200 people in that villiage) and learned their traditional circle dance. The kids dance on an inside circle with drums and cymbals, and the older men and women dance on the outside circle, reapeating different moves, with instruments made of bamboo.

     All in all, it was a spectacular Christmas experience for me and also for the wonderful children here at Sila Home. Hopefully, some people from the neighbourhood even saw that something different shines from Sila Home.

     All in all, it was a spectacular Christmas experience for me and also for the wonderful children here at Sila Home. Hopefully, some people from the neighbourhood even saw that something different shines from Sila Home.

     All in all, it was a spectacular Christmas experience for me and also for the wonderful children here at Sila Home. Hopefully, some people from the neighbourhood even saw that something different shines from Sila Home. must have taken some people offguard when it passed their houses. Not because there were 15 people sitting in the back of a truck, that's normal, but because the sound that came from it was not a radio, but a dozen loud voices. We had started to sing the Thai-English medleys of Christmas carols together as practice for our carolling stops, but it quickly switched to renditions of farmiliar sunday school songs and worship songs. We stopped at a pastor's house, another orphanage, a missionaries house and some elders from the church. At each place we had a snack and talked or mimed after we sang. This was admittedly my first carolling experience, but I doubt any others could ever top it.

     Christmas Eve was the night we had all been waiting for. Waiting and praying, cutting out cardboard snowmen, practicing skits and dances, handing out invitations and making piles and piles of food. Every year Sila Home sets up a makeshift stage in the cow field and invites everyone for dinner and a Christmas show. We didn't really know what to expect. The time came for dinner and people started trickling in. Ten at first, then thirty, then one hundred. Parked motorcycles lined the edge of the field. Finally, greetings were extended from the stage and people filled almost all of the 270 borrowed chairs. The worship team began, and people still came - mothers with babies strapped to their backs, elderly women and young men, Buhdist, Animist, transgender, drunk... Haden and I had the same thought at the same time - we needed more places for people to sit, and fast. The thistly cow field at night isn't exactly the best place to sit, and the show was a couple hours from over. In minutes unused car tires, rocks, bamboo and firewood were arranged nicely to seat another hundred people! Dances and skits were coupled with draw prizes for a full night. Every one got to hear the Christmas story. My team performed the lifehouse everything skit, and from one account in the audience, there were a lot of tears. 

     After the Christmas Eve show, my team and I did not go to sleep. We were busy playing Santa, wrapping an labelling gifts for all 45 kids and staff. They weren't much - hairbands, notebooks, socks and candy, but it was an worthwhile effort at six the next morning when all the kids ran in to find a package with their name on it on the floor. After they had opened their present the kids got a special treat from rice for breakfast, dry toast and an egg. The day was filled with games and festivities. For dinner we sat in small groups around a clay pot filled with hot coals and cooked ourselves each dozens of meatballs. Best Christmas dinner ever.

     New Years Eve in Thailand is kind of a big deal, especially since most people pay little attention to Christmas. At Sila Home it is a cherished day to relax. On New Years Eve we all ate together outside, sitting on a tarp, and then, following tradition we watched three movies outside back to back - The Smirfs, Kung Fu Panda 2 and a Thai comedy. All the kids were so exhausted and it was cold that at least twenty of us curled up on the floor under a strew of blankets. At eleven we gathered together and worshiped, then played a Secret Santa-like game where we al traded 80 cent gifts. At midnight we counted down - saam, song, nung, Happy New Year! The year 2555 had begun. Firecrackers went off everywhere around us and sky lanterns drifted across every horizon (yes, the things from Tangled). 

     In the morning, on New Years Day, people from they neighbourhood started to file onto the Sila home property. Arunee, Nicharee and I served them pineapple cookies and cold Thai tea and then they sat to wait for what they'd signed up their children for... an Operation Christmas Child Box! We gave out close to 150 of them. The kids were thrilled and people saw that Christians do care for them. 

     All in all, it was a spectacular Christmas experience for me and also for the wonderful children here at Sila Home. Hopefully, some people from the neighbourhood even saw that something different shines from Sila Home.