Giving Precious Gifts

My church is making a special push to support Christian ministry globally this Christmas.  We have two projects picked out - one in Africa and one in southeast Asia.  We are trying to raise the funds to accomplish specific tasks, such as building desperately needed wells and rebuilding a ministry center that was destroyed by arson.  My small group decided to do something similar (in addition to supporting the church's goals).  Open Doors allows individuals, families, and small groups to meet specific needs for persecuted Christians.  For instance, $4 provides a Bible to a Christian in a persecuted area, and $60 provides literacy training to a new Christian who cannot read.  For $10 a person a group of ten can provide ten Bibles, as well as literacy training for one person.

This past July I had the privilege of delivering Bibles to persecuted believers in southeast Asia.  I can hardly express how precious these books were in the eyes of those who received them.  Many of them were barely literate, since subsistence farming is the norm, and the opportunities even for elementary education are few.  Even so, they were lit up with joy when receiving this treasure.  I imagine that just receiving these Bibles provided a new and unparalleled incentive to self-educate. 

I've been to many Christmas parties where gifts in the $10 to $20 range are exchanged, haven't you?  It's entertainment, more than anything, because most such gifts are either discarded or used without much appreciation.  That is, they aren't seen as anything close to precious.  Precious gifts, in contrast, are salutary for recipient and giver alike.  In fact, "It is [even] more blessed to give than to receive " (Acts 20:35).  So I encourage you to give something precious this Christmas.  Anything that helps God's  light to shine into open hearts qualifies, whether or not it requires much money.

Albertus

Comments

[beth]

Great idea. One can give a card saying that a their gift has been in giving 2 Bibles (for example) to persecuted Christians in SE Asia. Catholics send cards at Christmas saying that nuns of a specific order are remembering you in their prayers. My non religious father gives me the gift of having given someone a goat or water buffalo in a poor area of the world.

Beth

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[Thomas More]

Beth, I sent you an actual water buffalo this year. I hope you and the kids get a kick out of it, and that there is ample space in your new apartment!

I all seriousness, this is a great idea Albertus. It is remarkable how little does much in these areas of the world. Looking at our American extravagance--including the church's--and how little we target our resources to needy areas (particularly outside our country, and even more particularly in unreached areas), I worry about our God's judgment on our stewardship.