Dear Parents and Guardians, 

Week 8. What can I say? We are so close to wrapping up the year, I honestly don't know where the time has gone. Over the past few weeks, as we near Christmas, we’ve been looking at what Christmas means and the tradition behind it. The students are so eager for the holidays, the presents, the time with family and the food.

But it’s very refreshing to see that they’ve already grasped the true meaning behind Christmas - the birth of Jesus Christ and the beginning of His journey here on earth.

We’ve zoomed into the different aspects of Jesus' birth, firstly looking at the Wise men. Fun Fact: many people think there were 3 wise men, but in actual fact, we’re not sure how many there were. We assume 3 because they bought 3 gifts but the Bible is never specific about how many wise men there were. Speaking of Gifts, we looked at the gifts the wise men brought to Jesus. The students and I quickly realised that we are far too poor to afford such gifts, so we brainstormed some other gifts that we could give to Jesus. Soon, the entire class realized that they all had gifts that they could give to Jesus just like the wise men! They ranged from the gift of singing, to the gift of sharing and we realised that we all had something special we could give to Jesus just like the Wise men.

The following week we had a closer look at the shepherds in the story. We discovered that back in those days, shepherds had such boring jobs, that they would often embellish their stories to appear more interesting. Everybody back then knew not to trust the full story of a shepherd. So why did God entrust the shepherds with the good news that a new king was born? Wouldn't entrusting the task of spreading the message be better suited to someone more reputable? We realised that God doesn't use the perfect. God doesn’t only want to work with the best. But God uses anyone and everyone to help spread His message, so we should never be ashamed to share Jesus' love with others. The class understood that they are more than enough to be entrusted with sharing Jesus to others, just like the shepherds. 

This Christmas season, as much as presents under the tree are fun, let's remember the gifts we have that we can give to Jesus just like the wise men. And it doesn't matter who you are, what you’ve done or where you’re from, Jesus came to earth for you. But not only you, everyone around you too! So let's be like the shepherds and not be discouraged, but shamelessly share the love of Jesus with others. 

Merry Christmas!