Spending Christmas with Family

When a friend asked me to climb Mount Cook 12 years ago my reply was a quick "No thanks". He recently told me how to keep warm sleeping on the snow. Though it is summer here, some nights have been down to 8 degrees which is 3 times colder than what I used to in Singapore.

Anyhow, I might just have a chance to spend Christmas on Mount Cook stopping over there from Queenstown to Christchurch. When I bought the tickets yesterday it was the first time that I thought this would be one Christmas that I will spend with my son. It took me a while to decide to go on a holidays but when my son got his first job yesterday I thought that would be a nice way to celebrate flying over Mount Cook and making a round trip from Dunedin to Queenstown then to Mount Cook onto Christchurch and back to Dunedin in 3 days.

Spending Christmas with family has always been put in the back burner as I have preached on most Christmas days since 1994. Even though the family is with you but when you are on preaching assignment it is hard to enjoy the day except to focus on the Christmas messages. I remembered once it bore fruits when I interviewed a member for baptism and she told me that she came to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ through the sermon I preached the year before. Since hearing that testimony I have been reluctant to decline Christmas preaching invitations.

I told my son that once he graduates, we as a family will find one Christmas day where father, mother and son spend Christmas together somewhere without preaching distractions.