Celebrating the real meaning of Christmas in Baja

Issac Lopez

This year our team of four volunteers and three children visited four local orphanages during the Christmas season: Casa de Paz, Buenavida, Albergue Temporal, and Puerta de Fe. During these visits we were able to distribute products sponsored by Activated Ministries as gifts to the children. 140 Grandpa Jake’s Christmas storybooks, 140 activity booklets, 200 Activated magazines, 30 greeting cards with an audio CD of Christmas carols, and 100 The Wonder of Christmas hardcover books were given to the orphans.

The main theme of the presentation was the real meaning of Christmas, Jesus’ birthday. We asked the children what they wanted to give Jesus for Christmas, and the responses were beautiful. The children wanted to give Jesus the gifts of patience, love, forgiveness, sharing, obedience, and many more. We all sang “Las Mañanitas”, which is the Mexican birthday song, to Jesus. It was something that none of the children were expecting, but we all had a lot of fun as everyone sang along!

Our children, Sheila (8), Donovan (5), and Arthur (4), performed a Christmas song called “Lei Lo Lai Lo”, followed by Sheila singing “What Can I Give Him”. After that, we invited everyone to pray with us to receive Jesus as their Savior. In total, we prayed with over 200 people and each of the children received a beautiful set of Activated books, as well as a balloon sculpture.

The directors of the institutions were very happy with the message that we were sharing with the children and praying with them, as a lot of people focus more on the presents and not on Jesus and what Christmas is really about.

Special thanks to Activated Ministries for sponsoring the materials and making it possible to give Christmas presents and make a difference in these orphan’s lives.