Trinity KidsThoughts on kids, family, faith and home.

Hey guys and gals,

Just read a few resources from Mark Holmen, great stuff, check it out here…

Interesting article in the Edmonton Journal today…

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/entertainment/Moms+reign+Canada+role+models+Survey/4616332/story.html

We often share at church that parents are the primary influence in their children’s lives… I’m not sure people always believe me.  With Justin Bieber, Glee, Mily Cyrus, and more always around the corner on media children are exposed too – well don’t we often feel relegated as parents to just being the keepers of order and sanity? This article is a great reminder that parents are still the greatest influence in their children’s lives!   That means what we say matters to our children – no matter what attitude they may give us back.  That means our love matters to our kids – no matter how they try to pull away.    That means our faith matters to our kids – no matter what they say or do.  Parents -we are the greatest influence in the lives of our children.  Let’s take that as a challenge and affirmation and keep moving forward as parents and in nurturing faith at home.

Hello from Abu Dhabi!  We are well into our second year here in the United Arab Emirates and we are still living in Abu Dhabi, one of the seven emirates in the UAE.  We are only 1 ½ hours away from Dubai.

Our experience here has been both a wonderful adventure and a time of growth for our family.  We have grown closer together as a family unit and all of us have grown in the areas of patience, flexibility and acceptance of others’ differences.  We are living in a huge city by the ocean, populated by a variety of nationalities and religions, predominantly Muslim.  At times we long for familiar traditions and people from “home”, but our experience here has been enriched by meeting new people and learning new customs and traditions.

Evan, Aaron and Rebekah have formed new friendships through a wonderful homeschool association here in Abu Dhabi.  Jaye is facilitating their learning at home and they often venture out on park days, field trips and many other educational music, art and sport opportunities around the city.  The homeschooling is going well, though at times Evan misses the chance to be with his friends in the classroom.  The kids are actively involved in our community events such as piano, guitar, gymnastics, karate, wrestling and drama.  The kids are practicing for our Christmas music event at our church ECC (Evangelical Christian Church).  Many activities are arranged through our church and we enjoy being connected to a Christian community.

I, Mylinda, have survived teaching at an all boys Muslim school last year! The behavior was extremely challenging and the day to day dealings with the students, lack of resources, parents and administration was very stressful.  I was transferred to an all girls school this year.  I am currently teaching grade 1 and though there are many behavior issues and many concerns with parents and administration, it is a much better environment.  I have been “stretched” in many areas of my life and have welcomed the growth.

We miss our church community in Canada, our friends and family.  Thank you for your prayers and thoughtful package of books and videos, it means a lot to us.  We will see you this summer for a visit or to return home, we are still praying about the third year.

Love and Sunshine,

The Carnahans

Churches tend to try to stay on a schedule.  Somehow it becomes easier to plan things, and easier for people to plan around.  At Trinity, our annual Church Christmas party has been regularly scheduled on the first Sunday in December.  The format has changed, but generally the day of the year has been consistent. You could say it’s a bit of a tradition.  This year we started planning the same way. We knew people had different things on their schedules but figured it would work to stay with the same day that people were used too.

A few weeks ago we were getting ready to start promoting the Christmas party being on December 5th when we started talking about how Strathcona County is doing a grand opening of it’s new community centre that same day.  It’s going to be a big celebration. As a result of that event, this year we’ve moved our church Christmas party to be after church on December 19th so families can attend the December 5th celebrations at the new community centre. 

Why did we decide to move the church party? It’s easy to say we want families to feel free to go to that event.  We want them to be able to join in the festivities and community activities. That even sounds nice for a church to say doesn’t it? Some might be cynical and think that we were worried about poor attendance at our event and so we moved it.  That would be a fair concern in a lot of ways.

So I want to share the thought behind the decision to move the church Christmas party day. We could have easily missed something if we had chosen to just stick with tradition.

Christ came to this earth as a babe – we know this and are preparing to celebrate it.  That babe came so we could have a life of grace and forgiveness – a gift not for a few, but for all who will receive it.  We believe we are called to make the gift of Christ known in the world around us.  In fact, it’s a gift that was made known to the world when Christ was born.  Christ placed a star in the sky and led wise men from afar to come and worship the newborn king. God wanted everyone to know the miracle of Christ’s birth.  The coming of the wise men has been seen as so important because it shows God’s gift of the babe was for the whole world. We celebrate that day on January 6th and it’s called Epiphany.  Some cultures value that day they celebrate Christmas on that day because it represents Christ being for the whole world.  The story of Christmas is not just about the babe being born for a small group of people, but for everyone.  That is what we’re called to celebrate and share.

 For us to have a church party celebrating God’s grace and love in Christ offered to all, while separating ourselves from the community in which we live during a major community wide event – somehow we would be missing the point of what we were celebrating.  We would miss out on the chance to be the light that we’re called to  be shining the love and grace to the community around us.

The challenge with traditions whether they be a yearly party date or something more important is that there’s a tension with keeping them to help us remember and celebrate while not letting them stop us from being who we are supposed to be right now.  We can’t just celebrate the past, but need to celebrate the now by being and doing what God has called us to. 

Maybe as families we need to take time too to evaluate our traditions in Advent and at Christmas.  Do they help us celebrate and remember? Do they allow us to be and do the things God wants us to?
It could be worthwhile to change a tradition or try something new this year as your family celebrates Advent and Christmas.

As you start your planning, we would like to invite you to join us as a part of our community for the Strathcona County celebrations on December 5th.  Come and take time to have conversations, share in events, laugh together and have a great time of connecting with the community. Perhaps like that star thousands of years ago, God will use as a light  to draw strangers from afar to encounter Christ our King.