fruitland community

Birthday Present for Jesus

Okay...so let's start with the obvious: Christmas is whose birthday?  Since you know the answer, I'll go to the second question:  Why doesn't He get the bulk of the birthday presents?  Third question: What if we spent less and gave more for Christmas?  Now many in our church have already packed shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child and others have helped deliver Thanksgiving boxes.  Awesome!  If you are like me, giving at Thanksgiving just primes the pump for giving even more at Christmas!  I was amazed as I did some research for some really cool Jesus' Christmas presents.  Here are some of the results I found:

1.  Give to World Vision by buying chickens, goats, cows or water wells.  I'm not kidding.  Check out their on-line gift catalog:  http://donate.worldvision.org/OA_HTML/xxwv2ibeCCtpSctDspRte.jsp?go=gift&&section=10389&daniel_prod_ses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

2.  Did you know for $25 you can send Christmas Care Pack for a child through the Voice of the Martyrs?  Check out their website:  https://www2.vombooks.com/qry/qe_store.taf?_id=A373551896

3,  Did you know that you could help buy water for Kenya without shopping...all you have to do is clean out your shoe closet.  Check out this website:  www.shoeman.org.  If you want to do this project, you can bring the shoes to FCC and we will get them to the shoeman!

4.  Would you like to bless some residents at Monticello Nursing Home?  We will be thowing a Christmas party with six other churches for the residents of Monticello, December 13, at 2:00.  Just come and sing Christmas carols and shake some hands!  It will be a blessing!  Our church is also going December 20 at 2:00 pm for our regular visit. 

5.  Cards for military men and women.  We will have cards in the foyer at FCC for military men and women wha are family or friends of folks at FCC.  If you know of anybody that should be included please let us know.  We will also be sending packages to those deployed to Iraq/Afghanistan.  Some items you could donate to the church for this project could include:  twizzlers, candy, mixed nuts, trail mix, Sudoku puzzles, etc.

6. Christmas gifts for area families.  We have about 6 families with kids from the area that could use Christmas gifts.  We have gender, sizes, and interests of the kids in the office.  E-mail me of your interest and we will get the information to you!

7. We are giving away Christmas hams this year to families in need.  If you would like to donate money for a ham, they are $10.  You need to indicate on your envelope "Christmas Hams."

8. Many people give above their normal offerings to missions during the Christmas season.  You can do that through FCC, by indicated "Missions" on your offering.  These gifts will be distributed to world, US, and state missions, as well as Mending Hearts, Shining Light, and FBC, Chalmette. 

9. What about including your neighbors by delivering cookies or Christmas caroling in your neighborhood?

10.  Some may want to consider giving seed money for our new partnership in Vancouver, or to strengthen our continued efforts in El Salvador.

I'm sure that you could come up with a better list, but it was fun for me to just brainstorm for a few minutes.  In fact, if you have some ideas, please send them to me to share with others in future years. 

Happy Birthday Jesus!