Sewing Seeds of Love by Way of Candy!

Last year, I wrote a post titled - The Reason We Participate. You can click here if you would like to read some of our thoughts on Halloween in American culture. This year we had assumed that since Halloween is not celebrated in our new culture, we would likely no longer participate as a family since the main reason we did in the States was to be light and love to our neighbors. However, during the Seker Byram (click here to read more), our new local friends told us that they give candy like we give candy "when we celebrate witches". As you can imagine, Matt and I were horrified that they thought that Christians participated in any type of witch craft, but we did not have enough language to really explain ourselves or go into a lot of details on what we believe. Over the course of the last month, God really convicted us about using Halloween (Hallow's Eve - night before All Saints Day click to read great history on the TRUE beginning) as our first opportunity to "share" with our friends. After looking at a fall magazine that was sent to us by family (thank you Lisa Jump!), God gave me the wonderful idea of making "owl cookies". Giving food in this culture is a BIG deal. We don't have oreos, m&ms or moon pies here, but I could find substitutes...and since my mother sent the candy corn & icing, I had all the ingredients for a super sweet treat! We kept 2 extra American children this weekend, so the kids had a great time making the special cookies (mostly eating the fixings!) and an owl craft. The theme all weekend was "Not to worry, God takes care of the birds - HE will take care of you". This was a fitting theme for bird cookies, for children missing mom & dad, and a good platform conversation for our new local friends. We were able to explain that we do not give out candy to ward off evil; to worship the dead; or practice magic. We give to show our friends and family how much we love them and how we trust God to protect and care for us. We also take time on this day to remember those that gave their lives for Christ. PTL - our treats and words were well received. We are so thankful for all that God is doing in and around us. We feel truly blessed that God has us right where we are. We hope that you were able to find ways to share God's truth and light to those around you this weekend. It will still be a matter of prayer and discernment for us, but I believe we will now try to be even more purposeful about looking for ways to share truth to those around us during this time. I also know that we are even more convicted about teaching our children about our Christian heritage and what we should be remembering this time of the year. We have been challenged to not only set aside a time each year to give thanks, celebrate Christ's birth, and rejoice in the ressurection, but to remember those that gave their lives for the gospel.

Hope Your Time Was A Hoot! AT