For to us a child is born, to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 9:6
Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.
Luke 2:11-12
Christmas, the time when God gives
The time when He gives himself in Jesus Christ
The time when the all-mighty becomes all-meek
When the Savior comes to us
And opens a way to God
You may remember Noëlla-Marlène. In a previous letter, she told us about her arrival in Quebec in the midst of the pandemic, the challenges of her studies, finances and integration... and how Jesus became her Savior and Lord through it all.
There's another side to her story that we'd like to share with you: how Noëlla chose to reflect Christ by showing love at Christmas to those who need it most.
She tells us:
As my name suggests, I was born on December 25. All my Christmases before I came to Quebec were big celebrations where my parents, family and friends celebrated Christmas and my birthday. So I've always loved Christmas.
When I came here, with no family and nothing, my first Christmas was spent alone, especially with the Covid. I started not to like Christmas, or my birthdays. When that happened, I felt anxious and bad.
In 2023, after my baptism, when Christmas was approaching, I said: “Lord, I'm no longer going to live the month of December in anguish, where I'm not happy with my birthday, when it's a grace to celebrate your birthday, to have another year.”
And then an idea poped into my head: “You can rejoice on your birthday by giving.”
And that's when the idea of celebrating Christmas with the homeless came to mind. I'd never done that in my life, I'd never thought about that in my life: sharing Christmas with people in need.
And I thought: OK, I'll just go myself, buy some things, with a small budget and go and eat with one or two homeless people.
But a week before Christmas, there was a night when I didn't sleep, as if the Holy Spirit was saying: “No, we're changing, that's not the plan I have. You're going to tell your friends, the people you know, your acquaintances, to join you. It's going to be really big, that you can celebrate Christmas with lots of people who are in need.”
Me, I'm more of an introvert. It's like no, me, I can't do that. Plus, it was only five days until Christmas. I'm not just going to bother people and tell them we're going to celebrate Christmas with the homeless!
But it was as if the Holy Spirit had given me a strength that I didn't have myself: the next morning, I woke up and wrote a message to everyone, to the GBUC, to my friends, to the people I knew. I just wrote: “here, I'm planning to do this at Christmas, if you want, you can join me, or you can contribute financially, so that we can feed the homeless.”
And there, it was really a surprise, the Lord surprised me, there were many, many people who responded. There were people who came, who helped coordinate the whole thing, many people who contributed financially.
I thought I was just going to eat with two or three homeless people, but we were able to feed over 50 people. We went out on the streets, in the subways, and fed a lot of people. And we even bought blankets and were able to distribute them to the homeless centers.
For me, it was the best holiday of my life, the best Christmas I've ever had.
The story doesn't end there. Noëlla is repeating her project this year: she would like to put more emphasis on non-perishable goods (clothing, hygiene, etc.). If you would like to help, please contact her at noymar257@gmail.com.