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“Christmas Again” by Bob Lupton
Each year as we plan for the annual Christmas Store I’m reminded of a short story out of Bob Lupton’s Theirs is the Kingdom called “Christmas Again”…We’re often asked why we do a Christmas Store and this story story helps explain our philosophy behind it.
“Christmas again. Damn!” His words are barely audible but his wife knows his feelings well. She sees the hurt come into his eyes when the kids come home from school talking about what they want for Christmas. It is the same expression she sees on the faces of other unemployed fathers around the housing project.
She knows this year will be no different from the last. All her husband’s hustle, his day-labor jobs, his pickup work will not be enough to put presents under a tree. They will do well to keep the heat on. His confident, promising deceptions allow the children the luxury of their dreams a while longer. She will cover for him again because she knows he is a good man. His lies are his wishes, his flawed attempts to let his children know what the older ones know but never admit: the gifts are not from daddy.
He will not go with her to stand in the “free toy” lines with all the others. He cannot bring himself to do it. It is too stark a reminder of his own impotence. And if their home is blessed again this year with a visit from a Christian family bearing food and beautifully wrapped presents for the kids, he will stay in the bedroom until they are gone. He will leave the smiling and graciousness to his wife. His joy for the children will be genuine. But so is the heavy ache in his stomach as his image of himself as a provider is dealt another blow.
Christmas. That wonderful, awful time when giving hearts glow warm and bright while fading embers of a poor man’s pride are doused black.
My personal retreat experience
By Monse Rivera
I recently went with a group of 25 people to Crestline, CA by Lake Gregory. It is a cabin that the sisters in company with Mary own. The purpose was a silence retreat meditating on the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola. When I first got there, they asked us to not only silence our physical body, but to silence our heart and mind as well. I am the kind of person who is always thinking about the stuff that is happening and what is coming. Always thinking about work, family, church, and everything you can think of. I thought that it was going to be so difficult to silence my mind, and I thought that I was going to spend the whole weekend asking God to silence my insight. Of course, God impressed me and I was able to silence very quickly.
I learned many things about God that weekend, but the one thing I got stuck with was something that I knew, something very simple yet very powerful and easy to forget. The one thing that got stuck in me is that God is always working. He is always working in people, in situations, in conversations, in problems, in satisfactions, in ME. Now, the fact of knowing that God is always working didn’t change the way I see things now, but two questions did. Because of the fact the God is always working can be meaningless if a person does not experience it. Therefore, these two questions were the ones that changed the way that I live now. The first question is: How do I find God in everything that I do? Because God is always working in me and in everything around, how do I find Him? This is very intentional and it involves a reflection time of the day every night. The second question is not very usual to hear, but it is just the other way of the first question: How do I let God to find ME in everything that I do? This one needs to be very intentional as well, but with this one I don’t wait until the end of my days to reflect. I try to make pauses during the day to let God encounter me in my activities. The ways I do it is by praying or meditating at time throughout the day.
When I first thought of silence I thought of emptiness, not doing anything. But I found that to be in silence does not mean to only stay still. Silence means an opportunity to connect with God and let God to connect with me.
Our Site Coordinators
By Juval Flores 
The Hope Community Center on Center St. is a place where kids from K-12th come and get help with homework, sounds simple enough. What new neighbors walking by might not know is that on Monday afternoons Facia, a member of the Center St. NAC, is coordinating the center’s activities for the day. Facia is a well-equipped and confident leader that is responsible for the operation of Step Up program, along with other parents from the neighborhood. Not only does she coordinate the after school program on Mondays, including the coordinating of outside and neighborhood volunteers, known as Amigos, she also enjoys reading with new and learning readers. She can be found at the Center other days touring new parents that are interested in participating. Facia is an example of what a community center looks like when the neighbors are directing and owning what they have to offer to their community.
The Christmas Store
Mika’s Christmas Store is a unique opportunity for low-income families in Costa Mesa to shop for new gifts at an extremely reduced price in a festive store setting.
When: Saturday, December 17th 9am – 6pm
Where: Harbor Christian Fellowship, 740 W. Wilson, Costa Mesa, CA 92627
Click here for more information!
