Christmas morning in Bangalore. This was my first Christmas away from home. We woke up in the morning, got all dolled up, and went to church service. Everybody looked beautiful. The kids were dressed up in big fluffy dresses. I sang on the worship team for the first few songs. The kids went up after that and sang “He Shall Reign Forevermore”. They were adorable. After that, the men’s choir went up and sang two Christmas carols. They sounded awesome. And then Pastor Bryan preached a message on the two kingdoms. The kingdom of light. And the perfect counterfeit to the kingdom of light.
After service, there was coffee and plum cake for everyone to take. I guess plum cake is a big Christmas dessert here. I’m not a huge fan but I was pretty hungry so I ate a few pieces. I was finally able to get a family photo with my indian family, and then we headed off to lunch. We went out to a place that serves western food. I got pesto chicken pasta. And oh my goodness it was so good to taste pesto again. We walked over to a sweet and savory snacks place called Sikori. We went in and got an Indian dessert called Rasmalai (sweet cottage cheese thing).
We headed home after that and caught a quick nap before having to get ready for the party. We cleaned up, chopped up some veggies, and set the table for dinner. There were about 10 people over and we ate some seriously delicious food. Green curry chicken, beef cutlets, mushroom chicken casserole, pork ribs, rice, salad, roast beef, and banana bread with icecream for dessert. I was full for a very long time after that. We had a good time of fellowship. I have to say, at first it seemed difficult to be away from my family for Christmas. But I had a really good time here. I was able to celebrate by doing something different. I have never been to church on Christmas Day before, and it was so amazing because that is what Christmas is all about.
