Day 2 – The Twelve Days of Christmas Giving

Each day from December 12-24 my family has chosen to make a donation to a different nonprofit.  Here is our choice for day 2!  Click the link at the bottom if you want to read the introduction and day 1

Day 2:  World Orphans

Day 2 features World Orphans – the non-profit that has been a part of my life since 2011.  World Orphans mission is simple, we exist to inspire and mobilize the church to care for children until they all have homes.  We do that through church partnerships and economic empowerment efforts focused on wholistic care and family preservation.  We partner U.S. Church with Churches in 10 other countries who then provide spiritual guidance, food, medical care, education and empowerment opportunities to the families of about 20 children per church.  My work is focused on economic empowerment and our savings group and micro loan program in Ethiopia have exceeded our expectations.  We are also making significant progress with savings groups and a women cooperative in Guatemala and in 2019 we kicked off our first cycle of training and loans in Haiti.  I could go on and on about World Orphans, but I won’t – although if you are interested I’d love to tell you more sometime.  Feel free to search the old posts on this blog to see many post about World Orphans over the years.  Our family has decided to direct our gift today towards helping the Kurdish people and refugees we are serving in Northern Iraq.

Want to learn more: www.worldorphans.org

Want to donate – click here

We would love to know if you are participating in this 12 days of Christmas giving project.  Please comment below and tell who you are donating to today and why?

Share this post – We’d love to see as many people as possible donate to World Orphans (or anyone else) today

Click here to read a full explanation and about Day 1

The Twelve Days of Christmas Giving

The Twelve Days of Christmas Giving!

Christmas is about giving not receiving.  That’s what we say, but in reality it isn’t what we practice. Oh for sure we may shower our family and those we love with extravagant gifts, gift cards or occasionally even regift that thing your aunt gave you last year but the scale of our generosity and gift giving pales in comparison to the scope of the gift given to us that we are celebrating. God gifted us with his only Son and that gift allows us to exchange death for life. Jesus went on to explain that the first commandment was to love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul and your strength and to love our neighbor as ourself.    Christian advocate and author John Perkins said it this way, “Living the gospel means desiring for your neighbor and your neighbor’s family that which you desire for yourself and your family.  This is an incredibly high standard and to be honest I think I rarely meet it and instead I seek ways to make sure that our family is safe, satisfied and comfortable at all times. 

This Christmas season amid all the lights, parties and gift giving I wanted to start a new tradition for our family.  In my family growing up my mother loved to celebrate the 12 days of Christmas by giving me and my sisters gifts for 12 days leading up to Christmas.  It was a way to extend the celebration and what kid doesn’t love opening a present every day for two weeks even if a pack of socks, underwear and tennis balls were sure to be part of the routine each year.  

I wanted to take the idea of the 12 days of Christmas but turn it in to an opportunity to give.  So we are creating our first annual 12 days of Christmas giving.  We met as a family and came up with a list of twelve organizations we wanted to support between now and Christmas day.   Working together with our children we decided how much we wanted to give each organization each day – it was so encouraging to see each of them use their own money to support the organizations that they chose. Working in a non-profit for the last several years I know how important end of year giving can be to organizations and while my family’s gift won’t make or break anyone I hope that our example will inspire others to do the same thing.  Each day I will be posting who we are donating to and explanation of what they do and why we want to be a part of what they are doing to make the world more like God intended it to be.   

We hope you will join us on this journey of generosity!  Share the post, Donate to the same organization or choose your own list of 12.  We are so thankful for all that God has provided for us and are truly thankful for the opportunity to put some of those resources back to work for his Kingdom.

Day 1:  Cross Community Church

It only makes sense to start with an extra gift to our local church.  We have been a part of CCC since the beginning and are very thankful for the ministry we are a part of.  We are growing and expanding and can’t wait to see what the future has in store for our church as we continue to add staff and members and move closer to finding a permanent location.  Even as we set up and break down our “church” each week the Gospel is being faithfully preached in word and deed.  In addition to funding its own operations CCC also is committed to outreach as they faithfully operate a food bank serving families at St. Helena Elementary School, have a partnership with Pastor Thony’s church in Port Au Prince, Haiti through World Orphans, and support local other parachurch ministries operating in Beaufort like Young Life, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and Radiance Women’s Center.  Our family decided to direct our gift today towards CCC’s benevolence fund.

Want to learn more:  https://www.crosscommunity.org/mission-vision-values

Want to donate: https://cross.churchcenter.com/giving

We would love to know if you are participating in this 12 days of Christmas giving project.  Please comment below and tell who you are donating to today and why?

Please share this post – We’d love to see as many people as possible donate to CCC (or anyone else) today.