“This could be someone’s last Christmas!” Growing up as the child of full-time Christian volunteers, I’d heard that every Christmas for as long as I could remember. Why was it that when other families were taking time away from work, school, and other responsibilities to relax and enjoy the holiday season, we were always busier than ever? Hadn’t we already done enough this year to help others and show them God’s love? Couldn’t we celebrate the season like “normal” people just once?

I knew in my heart the answers to those questions, so after a short bout of self-pity I got busy sharing “the reason for the season” with as many as I could. It seems that people are never more interested in hearing about Jesus than at Christmas, even here in Thailand, where less than 1% of the 60 million inhabitants are Christian, so this is a special opportunity to help others meet and welcome Him into their hearts.

In the weeks leading up to Christmas, other members of my Family International community and I visited scores of our friends and supporters, taking them Christmas cards and homemade cookies or other tokens of our love and appreciation. We also went Christmas caroling, did Christmas-related activities at several places where we have ongoing community service projects, and shared the Christmas story with individuals and at schools—especially at schools. We performed programs at an average of nearly three schools a day for two weeks straight. As a result, over 2,400 people prayed with us to receive God’s great gift of love, Jesus.

As worthwhile and rewarding as that was, we all looked forward to December 27, when we planned to take a three-day break to rest, relax, and enjoy a little late Christmas cheer with our families and some friends who had come to visit. Our much anticipated break never happened.

On the morning of December 26, we were doing a Christmas program for 150 children in the Sapan Ruam slum, on Phuket’s south side near the harbor, when a man ran past yelling something about an earthquake. He was followed by a panicking crowd. We immediately fled to higher ground and narrowly escaped a wall of water as it rolled inland.

Meanwhile, the entire western coast of Thailand was being gutted by the tsunami, which had been triggered by an earthquake off the coast of northern Sumatra, Indonesia, that measured 9.0 on the Richter scale. The tsunami would claim nearly 300,000 lives and go on record as the worst humanitarian crisis in history. UNICEF reported that a large percentage of the casualties were children who had been helpless when the waves came.

We joined the relief effort the next day. Over the weeks that followed, we met many of the children who had attended our Christmas programs and prayed with us, some of them now orphans. I have no idea how many of the hundreds we didn’t see were among the more than 5,000 people here in the Phuket area who perished in the tsunami.

This tragedy woke me up to the fact that each Christmas—each day, in fact—truly is someone’s last chance to feel loved. Thousands die in natural disasters, but many thousands more die every day without knowing their heavenly Father’s love. Let’s all do all we can and take every opportunity to share that love with others. I’ve started right where I left off, with the children and other local tsunami survivors, but I can only do my best to love those in my corner of the world. Can you do the same in yours?

Ike ­ Suriwong is a full-time volunteer with the Family International in Thailand.