Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Don't Buy Me Any Gifts This Year

I'd rather not receive any gifts this year. Seriously.

God has provided everything we need, and work to cover future needs. For now, we have no unmet material needs. That might not always be true, but this year, it is. And we're grateful.

For this year, I would rather my friends and relatives bought some rice. Or maybe a soccer ball. Or little shoes. Or just some ugali. What would thrill me more than a gift-wrapped box is donation to hungry4HIM Ministry (http://hungry4him.com), which supports the Friends of Christ orphanage in Ahero, Kenya. There are almost 300 orphans at FoC, and little donations go a long way. For example:

  • You can provide a 5 lb. bag of rice or beans for about $3.
  • You can provide a 5 lb. bag of maize for about $5 (20 lbs. would feed the entire school for one meal).
  • You can provide a chicken for $5 or a fish for $3.
  • 6 pair of socks cost about $2, and a blanket for $6.
  • Toiletries? 15 bars of soap for $3 or 10 toothbrushes for $5.

If you would like to provide a Christmas gift in this way, just write a check to "Hungry4Him", put "Christmas fund" in the memo line, and send it to:

  Hungry4Him Ministry
  427 Airport Road
  Dublin, GA 31021

Hungry4Him is in process of putting together a Christmas "catalog" to promote this kind of giving, but I'm just getting the word out early.

Or, there are many other ministries that have the same kind of fundraiser - giving gifts to their ministries in lieu of giving one another gifts (often times, gifts we really don't need anyway). I encourage everyone to think about this as a gift-giving idea, for whoever you would buy gifts for.

I would love it if this practice eclipsed "Black Friday" in the amount of money raised.

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