Beyond the Shoebox

The past few Christmas seasons we have participated in Samaritan Purse shoebox drive.  As a family we would shop for simple items from a suggestion list for either a girl or boy, pack the items in a shoebox and drop them off at a local church.  The shoeboxes are then sent to needy children around the world.  If you would like to do this the National Drop off week is this week, November 12-19, 2012.  You can search their website for a donation drop off point near you. 




This year though we are going to do something a little different thanks to an idea I heard from one of the ladies in my bible study.  Our family sponsors a child through World Vision and each year around this time we receive a gift giving catalog from them.  Normally, I don't pay much attention to it and it eventually ends up being recycyled.  But this year we are going to choose an item from the catalog and bless someone with the gift.  Perhaps a gift from the catalog can bring happiness as well as a way to improve their circumstances.  Bringing blessings for days, months and years to come. 

There are a variety of items to choose from.  From school supplies to farm animals.  They even include help, hope and shelter for trafficked victims.  We won't be picking one of those as a family as my kids are too young to have something like that explained to them, but I love that they have this option available.  My youngest wants to send a bible in the childs own language and my older one is still deciding.  Perhaps this will become a family tradtion.  One that they can carry on once they begin their own families. 

We are so blessed in our country. We have so much compared to other places.

• Did you know that if you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep, you are richer than seventy five percent of the people in the world?
• Do you own a car?   93% of the world population doesn’t. And here in America most families have 2 cars.
• Almost half the world's population, 2.1 billion people, live on less than $2 a day. Of these people, 880 million live on less than $1 a day.

What a wonderful gift to give your children. Teaching them how blessed they are. Teaching them compassion - to think about those who are more needy than they are. Give them the gift of joy that comes from blessing another person.

Give a gift. Change a life.

When we show compassion and choose to bless someone else, we are ultimately blessing Christ and bringing glory to Him.

Matthew 25:40  "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'


World Vision Gift Catalog






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