More Ideas for Christmas!!! (Non-Profits)

Do you have some people on your list that are impossible to buy for??? They have everything???? Well here are a few things we have done or are currently doing this year....You can always give donations to organizations in HONOR of someone for a gift!!!

Gideons International: A Non-Profit group that prints and distributes BIBLES across the world, in prisons, hospitals, hotels, colleges,ect. Another great note about the Gideons is that 100% of the money donated to this organization goes to the printing of God's Word!!!!

 OneVERSE:
Today, nearly one-third of the world's language groups representing 200 million people are still waiting for God’s Word in a language that they can understand clearly.
OneVerse is a program of The Seed Company that enables you to support local Bible translators as they make God’s message available in the language of their people.To see the languages currently being worked on go here!

Your sponsorship gift of $26 provides the resources required for national translators to translate one verse of Scripture into their own language. Go here to see the most frequently asked questions about OneVerse. If you go to ONE VERSE you can pick a beautiful card with a scripture verse on it....to give to your loved one at Christmas time. This card will tell them you made a donation in their honor to further Bible translation in the language you selected. That card is mailed to you so you can give it to them or mail it onto them after putting in a personalized message.I just finished picking out a couple cards for gifts to people we love for this Christmas..the process was very easy to do!!

For the very first time, we donated shoe boxes for Samaritan's Purse Project.

This was such a special time for all of us in our family. This giving project was a real and tangible way for my children to experience "giving". Each child had their own box to fill with goodies of their choice (maybe a few little hints from Mom). The boxes are given to different age groups and so Julia and Zach each did a shoe box for a child that is 2-4 years old.....(Zach made a "boy" box and here you can see Julia and I put together a fun "girl" box) Lance and Caleb did boxes for boys ages 5-7. To keep the giving "practical for our family we gave things we already had on hand. Each child got to  choose a few toys that were gently used to pass onto a special child around the world. We put in toiletry items, paper, markers, stickers, ect. Samaritan's Purse also gives every child a Scripture booklet in his/her own language along with their shoe box full of goodies.

We wrapped our boxes with some fun paper and then prayed over our them before we delivered them. I would highly recommend doing a project similar to this one for your own family! I am sure you will be blessed, as much as have been, with the great conversations that have followed since this shared time.
Even though National Collection Week has ended already, it's not to late to give to this great cause GO HERE for a list of locations you can still drop off boxes to through December 12, 2009!!!! Did you know you can also send boxes year around???? The shipping address for that location is listed at the bottom of the above link....







Our home church offers us a great opportunity each year. We partner with the Slavic Gospel Association to bring the message of Christmas to many Russian, Ukrainian, Belarus children and their families.
It's call Immanuels' Child and here is how it works:You pick up a "Star" (or two or three) and fill the information,then return the start along with your $25 donation per star. That money provides each child with a little package of  goodies (which could possibly be the one thing they get for Christmas). Each gift includes many things: Your signed star, a special gift, Christian children literature, maybe some fruit, warm gloves, or toiletry items,and materials that will allow the local church to follow up on these children throughout the year.

I forgot to mention that after you fill out the star you peel off part of it and keep it as an ornament for your own tree. It's a great visual reminder for us throughout the Christmas season. In year's past we have chosen a star for each child in our family.....In honor of a child who was "our gift".....our children are helping to give other children the "gift of Jesus". This year we did not participate in this program.....only because this year we decided to participate in the Samaritan's Purse Project and give to another great cause the I would love to share with you called Children's Hope International.

We got such a passionate response from our children after completing the Samaritan's Purse Project that when we heard about Children's Hope International and what they are doing for poverty stricken communities and orphans we knew this was something we wanted to be a part of. Children's Hope offers us many opportunities to help others in a long lasting way. Donations levels start at as little as $10 (which will purchase seeds for an orphange to plant a garden). I loved that this organization isn't just throwing food at people, or putting a bandaid on the many issues. This organization focuses on equipping people with life skills. You can provide needy people with chickens....giving them eggs....and....giving them chicken to butcher. You can provide them with seeds...which will grow a garden...which will provide them with food to eat.....food to sell.....giving them an extra income as well...which lead to a whole host of other things they can provide for their families/orphans. I am excited that this organizations offers such a range of things we can donate for: chickens, water wells, surgeries, food, richshaws (special bikes used for taxi's...to earn income), school books, and the list goes on and on!!!!
Here is what decided to do with our kids...again remember we are really trying to reinforce "giving" in a sacrificial and real way our children can understand, remember and apply in their own little life.

Each year we have decided that $100 per child is what we spend on Christmas. So this year I told the kids (the oldest three) to decide on their own how much they would like to spend out of that $100 on giving to Children's Hope International.....they got to pick what the item was they wanted to donate. I was really blown away by what the result were from my two oldest! They each chose two items they wanted to "purchase" for the orphans. The items they chose also took up $45 of their Christmas money...meaning we have $55 left to spend on them......Zach at four is still more focused on what "He" is getting and not so much the concept...but he still chose one item to spend his money on. I was so moved by their generous giving. I felt like along the way I learned that I think it was maybe me that was struggling with the thought that I only had "such and such amount of money" to spend on them....and that they might not feel like they even got anything.....HOW STUPID HUH??!! Stupid but honestly how I felt as first. I know that is just how the world would make me feel...not what the Lord would be telling me. I realized that while I am striving to teach my children to be generous and open-handed with the things the Lord had given, the Devil doesn't stop working.....in fact he works even harder!

Okay so I am so sorry for the EXTRA WORDY post.....just wanted to pass on a few more things for your consideration.

DANIELLE