Christmas story

This is a true story I found. It is a great story for Christmas.
I hope we can all remember the real meaning we celebrate, and not let the presents overwhelm us.


"Many years ago I found myself as part of occupation troops in a
foreign land just at the end of a terrible war. It was not long after we
arrived in this country before we developed a great love and concern for
the people we were there to watch over. This was especially true of the
young people, the children. Many times we would find them scavenging in our
garbage cans looking for food to keep themselves alive. This deeply touched
us, and we wanted to make a more substantial contribution to them. We
raised what money we could and found a local religious group that was
willing to open an orphanage for them. We donated as much time as possible
to improve the facilities and provided them with the operating funds they
needed.

"As Christmas approached, we sent letters home to our
families asking that, instead of sending gifts to us, they send toys for
the children in the orphanage. The response of our families was
overwhelming! Toys arrived daily from our homes.

"We found a tree
suitable to use as a Christmas tree, but we had no traditional decorations
for it. A lady taught us how to make little birds by folding square pieces
of paper, and these became the major part of the decorations for the tree.
The presents were wrapped mostly in discarded Stars and Stripes newspapers.
I'll never forget Christmas Eve with those children. I am sure many of
them had never seen a Christmas tree in their lives.

"We sang
Christmas carols to them, but we weren't very good at this. They had
been rehearsing for weeks so they could sing a song to us in English. It
was not a Christmas carol, but it was beautiful. They sang, 'You Are My
Sunshine.' We were deeply touched with the spirit of the children that
Christmas Eve, especially as they opened the presents sent from our
families. I suppose some of them had not had a toy in many, many
years.

"This is a Christmas I'll never forget because we were
learning the true meaning of this great holiday season. The greatest joy we
can receive in life is giving--to bring into the life of someone
else a little joy and happiness."


L. Tom Perry, "A 'Sunshine' Christmas," Tambuli, Dec. 1990, 12