December Uganda Prayer & Praise
Pictured: Uncle and Aunt celebrating granddaughters birthday 2008
Dear Friends,
As we are getting ready to celebrate Christmas here, please keep Osborn and his family in your prayers. His uncle, Kataza John Livingstone was involved in an accident and went to be with the Lord. He was the patriarch of Osborn's family once their father had passed away. Below we have a story of Christmas with him and his family, written by Michelle Paine.
Christmas 2008
I was preparing to spend my first Christmas away from my family in a country that I deeply love. I didn’t know how Christmas was celebrated and what was expected. Would I have a place to go? Would I be invited to a family to celebrate with them? Can it feel like Christmas being 70° F and without the traditional things I am used to?
These and many other questions filled my mind as the students were dismissed after their exams at the school and it got very empty and quiet.
I traveled to Kampala to see my friends and to stay at Osborn’s house during the holiday. Osborn’s adopted son, Chicco, who was gifted to Osborn in a will, invited me to a Christmas Cantata that began to prepare my heart for the holiday season, but I still wondered where I would spend Christmas day and what it would be like in Uganda versus in Eastern Washington.
Hezron, Osborn and Dr. Abraham’s cousin, invited me to go with him to his family homestead in Namutamba, and spend Christmas with his family. After Osborn’s father had passed away, Dr. Abraham was still a young boy. Dr. Abraham was sent to Namtamba to live with Uncle Kataza John Livingstone to go to school. Uncle Kataza’s family accepted Dr. Abraham as if he was their own son so that Hezron and Abraham grew up as brothers.
There were no gifts exchanged or stockings to open on Christmas morning, but the heart of sharing time with family and friends while remembering the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ was very evident. We walked to church and remembered the reason we celebrated Christmas. When we returned home, others from the community and church joined us for a meal out in the yard. The time of laughter and fellowship was deep. On December 26th, Boxing Day, we went back to church for a baptism before heading home for a birthday party before we went back to Kampala.
When I received the news last week that Uncle Kataza John Livingstone was killed in a tragic car accident, my heart broke for a family who has experienced much loss over the years. Uncle Katazawas deeply loved and respected as a leader in his community and as a headmaster (principal) of their school. Uncle Kataza and the whole family welcomed me in to their family, during the two and a half days I was with them.
He taught me three things that I carried with me, that I didn’t realize until his passing. These include:
The Gift of Inclusion: Welcoming a stranger from a different culture into the intimacy of a family Christmas is a rare and beautiful act.
The Gift of Example: By raising Dr. Abraham as his own, he modeled a definition of family that isn't bound by blood, but by choice and love.
The Gift of Perspective: He helped me see that 70°F and a simple meal in a yard can feel more like "Christmas" than a mountain of presents, provided the "heart of sharing" is present.
As we prepare to celebrate this season, may we remember those who may not have a family to join with this season. May we not focus on the gifts and what we could get from others, but remember that Christmas is the beginning path for the cross, resurrection, and our forgiveness of sins through the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Merry Christmas!
Michelle
