Eric's Beijing Diary

Christmas. I'm sitting here at the coffee bar listening to Christmas sermons I am downloading from the Internet. The wireless connection here is pretty fast, so an average sermon only takes a few minutes to bring down (if you're using NetAnts). I'm listening to John Stott now, preaching from Matthew Chapter Two, telling how the magi were astrologers from Mesopotamia who had become convinced that a great king had been born. Here's his outline:

1. No trouble is too great to seek Him.
2. No people is to alien to find Him.
3. No offering is too precious to give him.

Christmas Memories. In China, it's not always easy to have discussions like, "What was your favorite Christmas?" or "What was your favorite Christmas present?" You could quite easily get Chinese young people to reminisce about Spring Festival (Chinese New Year), because that festival is so deeply ingrained in Chinese culture. But many, many Chinese young people don't have such memories of Christmas. So I turn inward. What do I remember about Christmas? I can't say much about my first Christmas, because I don't really remember it, but I have seen the picture lots of times. I am sitting between John and Mary in some kind of a walker. That's about what I can come up with. I remember a Christmas in Williston when I was about four or five and got a sled. And I remember one year Mel and I got stuffed dolls. Mine was Quick-Draw McGraw, and hers was Jinx the cat. Another time we got some puppets. Mom let us open them early if we behaved ourselves at the TV station, so we opened them one evening when we got back from doing the "Family Bible Hour" program. I don't remember all of them, but I know we got Popeye and Olive Oyl. Somehow those puppets managed to survive for a number of years, even through our house fire in Honjo. Anne Marie always used to call the Olive Oyl puppet "Matsuda-san." Back to Williston, though, one of the main memories I have is going to Grandma and Grandpa's house at Seven Seventeen West Broadway ("It's too much you do for us old people!"). Or "Well if it isn't you!" I always liked Grandma Langager because when we dropped them off after church, she would look at Melody and I and say, "Now don't get a spanking," Saved my hide more than once. I remember one year Uncle Si bought us our first TV, but I can't remember if that happened at Christmas or not.

I remember our first Christmas back in Japan. We had a Christmas program at the church in Sakata and I was Joseph. But the service dragged on and on and I fell asleep. When it came our turn to go on, I somehow stumbled on to the stage, but my bathrobe had caught on an old piece of furniture in the off stage area, and I dragged it up with me. We also had a Christmas programs at the boarding school. One year Miss Osmundson had given me a part where I had to pull my pockets out of my pants to show that I was broke. After our Christmas program, the grownups put on a skit for us about two people driving in a car. The car was an old table with a table cloth over it, and four of the grownups were crouched under it as tires. Dad was the driver, and Auntie Myrt was the passenger. At one point, Karen Werdahl, who was the cop, rode up on Bobbi's tricycle and pulled the car over. Dad had grabbed a duffle bag from the boy's dorm to use a prop, and when Karen asked him for his license, he opened the duffle bag and pulled out Thanny's long underwear. We all got a kick out of that.

I remember when I was in third grade I got a watch. It was the first watch I had ever owned and I was quite proud of it. The next year I had decided that I wanted to get a shortwave radio for Christmas. I prayed and prayed for that shortwave radio. It's funny how things look different with the passing of time--at the time, I almost felt guilty, because I knew I was asking for a luxury. But looking back now at a kid trying to keep from going stir crazy at that little boarding school, it was definitely a necessity. Somehow, I knew that I needed it. But I was taken aback on Christmas Eve when John and Mary also got shortwave radios. I hadn't thought they were even interested in such a thing. It hadn't occurred to me that Dad and Mom couldn't very well give me a shortwave radio, and then give John and Mary coloring books. Mel got a camera, which was good, because she actually got to be a pretty good photographer.

For me, Honjo was my favorite place for Christmas. We always had lots of snow, and we could go to the sand hills and go skiing. We probably did more sledding in Akita though. At Kinshojiyama. On the way back, we would stop and buy those little bean filled pancakes from a street vendor. We didn't do that much skiing in Sakata, although in Sakata we could buy those little bamboo skis for 15 yen. I never did master them, but I saw Japanese kids who were pretty good at it.