advent conspiracy

ben and i got to participate in something really neat today/tonight. i'll give you a short background first.

we decided as a church this year to join the advent conspiracy movement. a group of churches who have chosen to make a conscious effort to bring the meaning of christmas back into practical life. not just talking about what the real reason of christmas is, but to participate in it, by sacrificing some of the material things christmas involves and pouring it into someone else that actually needs it. one shocking statistic: $450 BILLION dollars was spent on christmas last year...in order to solve the worlds clean water problem (which is the cause of most deaths in third world countries), it would take $10 billion....something to chew on. check out the website to see more on this movement, but we decided as a church to participate in it by adopting a family in need this year in our community. there are only 10 of us right now, but we could do SOMETHING. so we found a single mom of 4 kids.

as a church we collected money and would give them the christmas they hoped to have...and it was pulled off! ben and the kids and i went this afternoon and shopped for toys. it was so neat to explain to dylan what we were doing and to have him participate in picking out toys for the kids, helping us wrap them and then tonight, dropping them off. we weren't really sure what to expect, we just wanted them to know God loved them and cared about them...they were SO grateful. they even wanted us to stay to be able to watch them open their gifts and i have to say it was one of the best things to see those kids be so excited about things they most wanted this year!

you know, we didn't really feel like we (ben and i) had anything to give. in fact, we're not doing xmas this year because we don't have it...but we could give something, we could get a toy for a child, we could. we wouldn't starve by putting the money out there, and even though we may feel like we have nothing sometimes, only because its not all we desire, we do, and we're blessed. my kids will have presents this christmas.

i love that this type of compassion is in the blueprints of our newstart Ebenezer Church of the Nazarene. as our leadership team was developing our core values, we decided that a large percentage of our church income would go towards community ministry, because there is more to meeting the needs of people than just inside of four walls...and tonight i was a part of that becoming a reality and i was blessed.

sidenote: on our way to the house to drop off the gifts, dylan said, "after we give them their presents mom, can we sing, "we wish you a merry christmas?"....God has given that boy such compassion and i love watching it.