For Christmas this year, like last, the Youth Group decided that instead of having the typical, maybe fun but somewhat worthless, gift exchange we were going to use our resources to help other people. Last year we helped 1 family but this year we were able to help 14 families with clothes, food, and presents.
Due to the fact that we increased the number of families 14 times we asked for help from the rest of the congregation. Basically I don’t think there is anyway that we could have done it without you. We were able to help meet the needs of 14 families in Kalamazoo because of your generosity. One way that this happened was in my community group. Each group was challenged to come up with an outreach activity, we decided to make 8 blankets to give to the children and parents of 2 of these families.
Just the other day Adam Snider suggested that each year we double the number of families that we do this for. That means that this coming Christmas we would help 28 families with food, clothes, and presents for Christmas. Wow, 28 families that we would have the privilege of helping!!! I think it would be great to give each child in each family a coat, an outfit, and a toy. Along with those items for each child a generous food basket for each family. This means that we need to plan on being able to come up with enough items for between 75 and 100 children and teenagers, so I started early. Michael Norton informed me that winter coats were on sale at Wal-Mart on 9th st. so I went and and bought a few coats to get started, 22 to be exact.
Being generous isn’t something that is reserved just for Christmas. Being generous is a result of being redeemed by Jesus. God, through Jesus, has been generous to us. As a result of experiencing that generosity we become generous people. There are both sins of commission and omission. A sin of commission is doing something that you ought not to be doing. A sin of omission is not doing something that you should be doing. You may say that you didn’t steal anything in 2010 but did you give? Were you generous? We have an opportunity to be generous this year even when the rest of the world is stingy because they are unsure of the economy and their security. Whether the economy tanks or not, we find our hope and salvation in Jesus. So my request is that each of you reading this would go and hit the seasonal clothing sales and stretch our resources to be able to help more families this coming year than we did last year. I am no financial adviser but I am pretty sure that you couldn’t invest that and get a better return, so help us invest in the people of Kalamazoo because they are part of God’s creation, the creation that He called good and came to redeem. They have value, so lets invest.
