Last Tuesday was Christmas, and this was the first year in ten years that we decided to stay home (not travel) for Christmas. We thought we would have a mellow Christmas, and while our Christmas break has been much fun, it has not been mellow!

Shannon playfully coined a term in response to a blog post – “spiritual static electricity.” The idea tries to describe the spiritual benefit of hanging around people who are living spiritually mature and beneficial lives, and picking up some of their habits. I got to experience some spiritual static electricity on Christmas day.

A couple in our church has a restaurant in Alliance called Burger Hut. This was the fourth year that they decided to serve a turkey dinner to the needy on Christmas day. Meredith insisted on signing us up to help out – I was hesitant because I selfishly wanted a mellow Christmas day (plus I was not sure what our local relatives and friends would want to do on Christmas day). So, on Christmas morning, we took the trip to Alliance to serve up food for hungry folks. Meredith was being spiritually electrical (if I may put it that way), and the couple that owns the restaurant were being electrical as well. It was very very good for me to be around them all on Christmas morning. I did not do anything too important that morning – I did dishes to keep dishes available for food to be warmed and served. We were there for about two-and-a-half hours, and it was good for me to be reminded that Christmas is not just about gifts and trees and pretty music. Jesus was very concerned with the poor, and it was a great way to celebrate Christmas helping the poor in a very small way.

We served about 400 dinners, and we heard a church down the road served about 450 dinners and ran out of food. That is almost 1000 dinners for one small city – Alliance has about 23,000 people. That is serving food to over four percent of the population! That was eye-opening; the need was great enough that two small churches served food to four percent of the population. I knew Alliance had some poor areas, but how many poor people are there in just that one town? According to the census (via Wikipedia), almost 13% of the families and 18% of the population live below the poverty line (with a staggering 26% of the under-18 population living under the poverty line). I don’t have any answer for the poverty of the town, but it was good to be around people who were trying to help in a small way.

We then went to our old neighborhood (I guess it’s still our neighborhood since we still own the house there) to visit with the George clan. The George clan are close family friends, and almost everyone was there – the Georges, three of their four children (and spouses), and nine of their twelve grandchildren. Add me and Mer and our Aunt Mary, and it was quite a full house! We had a good time visiting and eating. I got to flip through a 1930s yearbook that was the graduation yearbook for Grandpa George (who passed away a few years ago). It was fun to see how yearbooks have stayed the same (class photos and clubs and sports) and how they have changed (the informal language has changed – we’re still informal in yearbooks, but the language has changed).

We played a few games (I stayed away from Dutch Blitz, a game I dislike but Mer enjoys), and we got to see a short video that was made from digital pictures from one of the George grandchildren (who is about 8). It was fun to see the constant activity of kids running around and playing together (with occational drama of tears or arguments) – seven of the nine grandchildren that were in the house are ten years old or younger.

We left the George house in the evening, having eaten too much, and we came home and opened gifts from friends and relatives. The home, food, gifts, family and freinds are all wonderful, and need to not be taken for granted. That is one of the many benefits to static electricity!