This is my 2nd Christmas here in New Mexico....praise the Lord! I love it!
But Christmases are very different out here than back home in WV. Out here there is ALWAYS snow on the ground at Christmas.....which makes for an amazing backdrop for Christmas morning. And it's much quieter out here....no one really drops in on Christmas day so we are able to enjoy at least one day out of the year with just our family.
But one difference that sticks out this time of year is the poverty and need among the people of this area. I see it all year long, but it seems to really show itself at Christmas. In every one of my ministries, we do a distribution of some kind.....we hand out goody bags at Ft Wingate to the young girls, we hand out food baskets to the families of our Monday night Bible study.....this weekend we are going out to the reservation to help a church to do a community wide distribution. We attended it last year and it was somewhat of an eye opener to what the people have (or don't have) out there. I knew we would be helping hand out toys to kids and supplies to adults. But as I bagged up toys and handed them to the children, I almost felt bad.....the toys we were handing out were definitely used....many were broken and just pieces of toys.....it was hard to hand those to the kids. But they really didn't seem to mind and were thankful for all of it. Little girls smiled when they pulled a baby doll out of their bag, even though it had marker all over it's face and matted hair....and boys didn't seem to mind that their figurines didn't have both arms or if the cars didn't have all their wheels. Grandmas were so thankful for the pound of ground beef they received and the sack of potatoes. No one seem to complain......
It opened my eyes even more to the reality of this area, and of course it made me thankful for what we have as a family. Although we are sometimes in need, and I spend plenty of time each week standing in line at the food pantry for free food, I know we are blessed materially in many ways.

My kids have to 'purge' their rooms about once every other month or so.....weeding through toys and taking out the stuff they don't play with anymore....this year, we made sure we took the toys that were still in really good condition and had all the pieces and put them in totes.....now we are slowly putting them in bags (some for girls, some for boys) and we will take them to the church this weekend. My kids will be an active part of handing out the bags, and hopefully they will see their 'giving' have an effect on other children.

Although seeing the need is sometimes hard on me, I am so thankful for this opportunity to work among Native Americans. And although the need seems greater at Christmas, the need for a Savior is there all year long.
Please pray for us as we continue our ministry out here......the Lord IS doing a work here and we are blessed to be a part of it.