We are from Germany and have heard the good news for all people. Life in Germany is much like life in your country. We celebrate in similar ways with Christmas trees and gifts. If you are a lucky child, you might even receive an extra gift for finding the pickle ornament on the tree.

We go to church on Christmas day and sing carols like “Rudolph mit rotem naschen” und “Stille Nacht.”

We Germans have celebrated the birth of Jesus for a long time.

The Germans didn’t always know about Jesus. It was 700 years after Jesus lived before a man named St. Boniface came to the people living in Germany to tell them the good news. At that time the Germans were worshiping a large oak tree. They thought that this tree was their lord. St. Boniface wanted to show them that Jesus was the real Lord. So, he took an ax and cut the tree down. When the people saw that St. Boniface wasn’t struck dead by the tree god, they realized that Jesus must be more powerful than the oak tree. So, they began to worship Jesus. And now, millions of children in Germany are singing their own songs to celebrate his birth!

We have heard the good news for all people! Hola! We are from South America . . .  Venezuela to be exact. Our country is very different than here in the United States. It is very hot all year long and we have jungles, rain forests and all sorts of strange creatures. Life in Venezuela is not like life in America.

We do share one thing. We both believe in the same promises. We both believe that Jesus is the Savior of the world.

We hope and pray that, some day, we will all worship Jesus no matter where we are from. Jesus is out king, too.

The people of Venezuela first heard about Jesus from Spanish missionaries 500 years ago. Many of the Spanish people were not very friendly to the people of Venezuela. The Spanish came as a conquering army, and sometimes they were cruel to the Venezuelans. But, many of the priests who came with the Army were kind. The priests’ message was not a message of war and cruelty; it was a good message … a message of peace and hope. It was the same good news that I gave to the shepherds in the field so many years ago. And, so today, people in Venezuela have their own Christmas songs celebrating Jesus birth.