Our church, Church at Bethany, is raising money a different way for Christmas this year. In fact, the money we’re raising isn’t even FOR our church… but ALL of the proceeds will go toward the helping homeless children in our community and towards aiding children in orphanages.
If you’re in the Portland area, and are planning on getting a tree for Christmas this year… please consider purchasing it from us. Your money will go to those in greater need. There’s no BETTER way to get a Christmas tree this year!
Below is the press release I pulled from Matt’s blogsite.
PRESS RELEASE
Church! at Bethany, a 3-year old church that meets at the Stoller Middle School, is selling Christmas Trees For Kids.
100% of the proceeds will go to help children. 50% will go to the Beaverton School District Homeless Student Fund and 50% will go to Children of the Nations, which is a Seattle based organization that works in Africa to care for orphaned children.
The sale will take place at 16260 NW Bronson Rd Beaverton, on November 28th, 29th and December 5th, 6th, 12th, and 13th
Hours of operation are Saturdays 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Sundays 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM.
Trees are available starting at $25.
Donations are accepted and can be made online here!
It’s mid-October and all the talk shows are already talking about what to get your loved ones for Christmas.
Apparently, it’s NOT too early to talk about this… so lets:
Brian and I have been talking, praying and preparing for THIS year… the Christmas Chance turned three… because we knew it would be the first year he would really start to grasp the concept of Christmas.
We’ve already been in constant dialogue this past year with Chance about the children we sponsor through Compassion International. He is really starting to understand not all children can JUST “have a snack” when they’re hungry and drink water when they’re thirsty. Now… does that stop him from whining when he wants it? Not really… but it’s a starting point, right?
Chance had an amazing birthday. His friends got him a bajillion toys so we feel like he’s covered in the toy area right now. We want to give him everything he wants… doesn’t every parent???… but we want for our kids to understand the gospel of Christ more than the gospel of consumerism. We want them to love people MORE than they love stuff.
Most of all, we want them to know what it really looks and feels like to fully worship Christ.
We decided instead of loading him with gifts, we would purchase a much SMALLER amount of gifts (maybe 2… oh GASP!!) and those gifts would be relational gifts. This means, these gifts will be games or activity objects he can do with us or others. And his gifts to others will be things he’s made, painted, colored, etc.
The rest of the money we “save” will be distributed to the charities we support.
We’re also going to ask our family to write a check to these charities as well instead of buying us physical gifts. I’m guessing this will be pretty tough for some of my family members since they actually enjoy the activity of shopping and the “hunt” for that perfect gift.
The goal is to sit down with Chance (and Paxton… though I doubt he’ll understand any of it) and share with him the real deal on Christmas – JESUS!
Within my family, this idea originally began with my sister, Helen. About 4 years ago, she asked that the money we spend on her for Christmas be donated to her charity of choice OR towards her upcoming mission trip. So, that’s what we did. Look how much I learn from my baby sister
This, OBVIOUSLY, isn’t a new idea. Yesterday, Matt and I went to Imago Dei to check out the Advent Conspiracy. We’ve decided to support this concept and campaign at Church! at Bethany every year from this point on.
Check out this promo video from Imago Dei we’ll be using this upcoming weekend:
It blows my mind that $450,000,000,000 (BILLION) is spent in the United States for Christmas when it would only take 10 billion to remedy the clean water situation in the whole world.
Am I saying don’t buy Christmas gifts??? ABSOLUTELY NOT. Our economy needs you to shop and to spend money. What I’m saying is buy a relational gift, or sponsor a child (you can click on the banner I have up on the left), or clean a widows gutters.
My in-laws are taking our family to Eagle Crest for a week the day after Christmas for our gift. This is brilliant because it gives us family time together.
PRESS RELEASE
