Every culture has its celebrations. In the spring, Buddhist celebrate Buddha’s birthday which was before the birth of Christ in 563 B.C.. Muslims celebrate the birth of Mohammed in 570 A.D. also in the spring. There are countless holidays among every civilization on earth. Even the Israelites had sanctioned many feast and festivals from the Sabbath to the Passover. We were created to celebrate. Solomon tells us there is a time to dance and a time to laugh. People celebrate many things. In the midst of finals, projects, papers and dissertations all due before the holidays, the international students of Thunderbird University take a break and enjoy Asian Regional night when students from many different cultures perform traditional dances and singing. They also cook many ethnic culinary dishes. The members of our Bible study group all participated and showed off their skills in traditional Chinese dancing, kung fu and in song.
Pictured here are Taiwanese students doing a traditional tribal dance that reminded us of our time in Taiwan. Our first cultural experience was watching a similar dance way back on our internship in 1986 when we served at the Home of God’s Love! It was obvious they were able to shed the stress of their semester finals and enjoy this time of intercultural celebration. We are blessed with students this semester who really are curious about God and how he works in our lives. I have been so impressed with their inquisitiveness and how they study on their own and come with sincere questions. To be in such a place in such a time to share with these particular students is a reason to celebrate. God is so obviously bringing them along to faith and we are excited to see their enthusiasm. As we celebrate our own traditional holidays during this time, remind yourself that our brothers and sisters on the mission field all over the world are participating and sharing the love of Jesus especially at this time. Thank you for giving us the ability to serve the students God has put in our path. May your time of celebration truly be joyous and full of thanksgiving for what God is doing in the world!
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