My home is my bethlehem!

Bangalore: Each year, as the brash culture of consumerism slowly commits the true spirit of Christmas to the stuff of fading memory, stories of those who spread love, bro­therhood, generosity and peace, can melt even the hardest heart.

Pastor Paul is one among them. Every year, the Pas­tor, who heads the Indi­ranagar Church, comes up with a new way of spreading the spirit of Christmas. In early December, he set out, with 2000 volunteers from his church, to take Christmas to people’s hom­es.

“My home is my Beth­lehem,” he said, on Chris­tmas eve, “That is what I wanted to create. Christ­mas has become, over the years, more about drunken revelry and less about the birth of Christ. That is what I wanted to bring to them.”

Members of the church reached out to 15,551 people over 23 days in December. Every evening at 7, they would invite people to their homes to sing carols and read the scriptures, ending it all with a lovely dinner. Nineteen pastors from the church visited homes of the rich and poor.

“The poorer families, who seemed daunted by the prospect of having to feed so many people, had no reason to worry, for the church provided them with food. All they had to do was open their homes, we would do the rest,” said Pastor Paul. Hindus and Muslims arrived at the Church, along with the Christians of course, to open their homes and more importantly, their hearts to the spirit of Christmas.

“Since we are a big church, we do this in different halls every year,” said Singara, who was one of the coordinators of this event. “That does make it seem rather formal, however, which is why we decided to spread ourselves out across people's homes this year. It wasn't about spreading a Christian message; all we wanted to do was help people understand the true meaning of Christmas.”

As we set up our Christ­mas trees each year, for the sole purpose of placing pre­s­ents beneath them, Pastor Paul and the members of his Church have done what most of us forget. Thousands of people this year, Christian or otherwise —whether it was a decent meal or a friendly face they craved — were given a reason to smile. May we have many more such tales to narrate. Merry Christmas, Bangalore.