Yesterday our student church here had their Christmas program. We were very proud of them for all the hard work they put into it, from the decorations to the dances to the food. There was one quite amusing drama where they did the nativity as if Jesus had been born in modern day Mongolia. Because the taxi driver couldn’t find the hospital, Jesus was born in the back seat of his cab (at least that’s what we think happened since the bundle sort of magically appeared and our Mongolian wasn't good enough to follow). The shepherds were replaced by three business men and the three wise girls communicated by cell phone. All in all, it was a fairly realistic depiction because hospitals are hard to find, you spend a lot of time waiting in taxis because of traffic and everyone here has a cell phone.
The program which was supposed to begin at 3:00 was about 30-45 minutes late. We finally left at 7:15 before they got to the food. The most interesting thing we learned was a result of the late start. We had to wait because the Hindu group that had rented the building in the previous time slot went overtime. When we learned that the room had been used for some unknown ritual, the leaders spent time in prayer asking God to “clean up� after that event.
To help you understand, you will need a bit of a Mongolian lesson (welcome to our life). There are two words used for the pronoun “you.� The first one is “ta.� This is used for persons older than you or in positions of respect (bosses, leaders, teachers, etc.) If the person is younger than you or in a position under you, you use the term “chee.� Undraa always corrects us, because we often slip and call her “ta.� At 23, she doesn’t want to be called that by a couple of old folks like us. She calls us “ta� because we are both older and her employer.
When you are praying, God is always referred to as “Ta.� You probably would have assumed that. However, when Dawgee prayed to stand against the devil, she used the word “chee.� What a great picture of our position in Christ. Even though Satan has been around since before Adam and Eve, because we are in Christ he is a “chee.�
As we go through our Christmas festivities, we can remember that this is a fulfillment of Genesis 3:15. The baby is Eve’s promised child that will bruise Satan’s head. So when the devil is roaring about, trying to make you think he is a lion, remember that he is just a “chee.�