Christmas program

Wow, it’s been a really long time since I’ve updated my blog! Since I last wrote GES had three nights of Christmas program, I flew home to the States for two weeks, and now I am back into the swing of things, finishing up the school year.  The next few posts will hopefully catch you all up on some of those things!

Christmas program was a great time.  The first night was the kindergarten program, the second night was elementary school, and the last night was middle school and high school.  Each night there were two different parts to the night.  It started with the indoor program, which was planned by the music teacher here.  The kindergartners sang songs with hand motions and costumes, the elementary kids put on a play and each class sang a song, and the middle and high school included performances by the sixth graders, the ukulele class, the chimes class, and the high school choir.

Here are some pictures from the kindergarten night.  I was a class runner so I helped them "off stage" and made sure they were ready when it was their turn.  The class I was in charge of were all sheep, cows, and donkeys and sang a song about what it was like in the stable when Jesus was born.  It was so cute!

The next night was the elementary school program.  It brought tears to my eyes to watch all my students singing about Jesus’ birth and how he came so that we might come to him.  The play was about Christmas ornaments.   In the beginning the ornaments were arguing about which ones were Christmas-y and which ones were not and how some of them didn't fit in.  But then Joseph came out of the box and talked about how all the ornaments are important.  Christmas is not about ornaments and who is Christmas-y or not, it's about the birth of Jesus, who loves all people (or ornaments).  The story of the true meaning of Christmas was presented and they sang about Jesus’ birth.  It was such a wonderful opportunity for us to tell the parents the true story and meaning of Christmas – it is probably our biggest outreach to parents all year and their chance to hear the gospel. 

I also was in charge of a HelpLive table during each night of the Christmas program.  Over the year, GES has been raising money and support for an organization called HelpLive.  This organization serves children in northern Thailand who are refugees from Burma/Myanmar.  These children have no one to help them except for this organization that houses them, feeds them, and teaches them.  However, they need a lot of support and still have very basic living conditions.  GES has been raising money to fulfill their basic needs (such as blankets, food, and school supplies) and also raise money for them to set up coffee stands so that they can become a self-sustaining organization.  Every cup of coffee sold at a stand would provide a meal for a child (right now they only get one or two meals a day).  I had some of my middle school classes create key chains with a HelpLive tag on them and we sold them at the Christmas program as a fundraiser.  We also had pictures drawn by children at HelpLive that we sold.  Our students at GES are all very well off and so we are trying to open their eyes to children who have great physical need, that they are sometimes not aware of.

After the indoor program each night, everyone would go outside and get dinner and eat at tables set up on our soccer field.  A stage was erected and decorated and after dinner, each class sang a Christmas song and performed.  Some of my students also performed a Thai dance.

I really enjoyed Christmas program, even though it was a very busy time!  I helped make and set up a lot of the stage props for the indoor program.  Each day we would set up the props and then the next day we would take them down and put the new ones up (each night was a slightly different Christmas theme).  I was also able to be the accompanist for the high school choir, which I really enjoyed.  It was a lot of work to learn all that music and put it together with the choir, but I enjoyed it a lot (and the reaction of one of my students was priceless: "You play the piano?  But you're the art teacher?!?" ... haha, yes, you can do both!).

Overall, the Christmas program was a great time and it was really special to see my students perform and sing about Jesus’ birth to their parents, family, and friends!