With the Christmas season upon us the desire to give is stronger. Or at least it should be!! With our economy it breaks my heart to know that there are so many families struggling for not only Christmas gifts but basic necessities. We have been blessed to always have our needs met and often able to have nice gifts for our families as well, though we do have to pinch and scrape for them at times. But even though money is not abundant for us, we still have more than many families.
This year I want to be able to help in some way. Currently I am donating 3 large packs of diapers to needy families. I was planning on selling them on Craigs.list but posted them on Freecycle instead. The response was overwhelming!! I split them up between 3 families and they will be picking them up today. Though this will be helpful to theses families it is but a small sacrifice for me. Maddie had outgrown them and they were from my baby shower so it cost me nothing, not even time. One responder was collecting gifts for a needy family as well as diapers and I also gave her a Zhu Zhu pet that I had purchased for my niece. Again, not much of a sacrifice for me.
I am happy to be helping these people but I want to do more. My church is small and does not have any outreach ministries of this nature. I am wanting to find somewhere to help and maybe even take my niece as well. So I am looking for ideas. I am not sure if I can make a long term commitment but would like to help in some way for the holiday season. So tell me, how do you give back? And if you don't, will you consider it?
This year we are taking out a sigle mom and her 6 kids to a huge city light display that provides free cocoa and snacks, fires for smores, santa with raindeer, and TONS of beautiful light displaies. This family we "adopted" at church from our "God's extreme makeover event". She has no car, no money, no job, and is obviously overwhelmed. The kids would never get this opportunity to get over there to see it,and we are excited to see their faces light up!!
ReplyDeleteWe realized this year that we don't always have to give financially, it can be with our time as well.
I am "Giving Back" by fundraising to move my daughter's blind birth mom and 4 year old brother next door to our family.
ReplyDeletePlease visit our blog @ www.OurOpenAdoptionFamily.com to learn more...
We are looking for Churches, Groups, and individuals to donate their time, materials to rehab the duplex, and money to purchase the duplex.
We are in the beginning stages, so advice and suggestions are also welcome!!!
Thanks!!!
One of our favorite things to do as a family here is Operation Christmas Child (which is over for this year, I believe)... https://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/occ/. We all look forward to stuffing the shoebox yearly though! =)
ReplyDeleteA few other thoughts/suggestions that many in my church have done/participated in over the past few years are:
* volunteer at a local homeless shelter
* one lady gave out warm blankets on the street on Christmas day I believe to local homeless men & women... she just started walking the streets downtown, passing them out
* I've made an Easter basket in the past & gave it to a random family in the hospital so you could adapt that & do the same with a Christmas basket if you wanted (nursing home residents often need necessities/supplies as well so you could donate to a nursing home OR hospital I guess)
Just a few suggestions! =)
1. We give filled shoeboxes to Samaritan's Purse
ReplyDelete2. we collect all of our loose change, roll it and give it to Star of Hope Mission in Houston ( for each $1.63 gives a homeless person a Christmas meal in a warm building where they hear the Gospel and music at the same time)
3. We pray that God will show us even more ways to bless others each year (and He always shows us new ways)
I just reread your post- I'd love to have your help- if you are interested as we are in the same town!!!
ReplyDeleteHugs!!!
Thank you for this post. I think it is so important to give back to the community. Last year, my family donated money for grocery store gift cards, utilities, etc. to a women with 2 young children that needed help instead of giving each other gifts! I was so glad we did it.. because what do we actually need? I will be doing something similar this year but I don't know what yet.
ReplyDeleteWe just did boxes for Operation Christmas Child which is one of my favorite things to do each year. My church does an angel tree each year for needy children in our church and my husband and I choose a child and buy clothes and toys for them. I love doing stuff like that!
ReplyDeleteHi! I'm a new follower. LOVE your blog! You have such an amazing story!
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