In addition to what we print and share, there are many ways to communicate Jesus' love to our community during the holidays. The following example came from someone who sent along this idea along with printed examples in our Great Idea Swap:
The church that I attend, has for the past two years put on a “Festival of Hope” Christmas Celebration. This has taken place the 2nd Sunday of the month, during the afternoon, from 3 to 6 pm. We take a special offering in November and with that money, we purchase as many toys as possible for families in our community that may not be able to afford gifts. Instead of just a gift giveaway though, we make it a BIG Christmas party celebration, with many of our church family participating. As soon as our morning worship service is done, we transform our sanctuary into an indoor play area with a bounce house, several game stations, face painting station, Christmas cookie decorating station, a refreshment table with hot chocolate, lemonade, and Christmas cookies, a seating area with round tables decorated in Christmas style, and live music performed on the platform during the whole time. Families register when they come in and give us the names & ages of their children, each child getting a ticket for a free toy that they pick out (toys are organized according to age and boy/girl). Our church family mingles with those who come and everyone is welcome, we don’t turn anyone away and we don’t ask any questions regarding their financial circumstances. We trust God to bring us those who need this.
As you can imagine, it takes a lot to put this together and asks for a big commitment from our church family but it is so much fun to do!! I have been blessed to help both years and our church just loves doing it. To see the faces of children light up when they get to pick out exactly what they want and the parents eyes well up with tears of gratitude is priceless! Getting to know some of these people is also an added blessing. Yes, some of them don’t smell so good or behave the way you’d expect but we just look past that and share the love of Jesus with them. It’s really impacted our church and community in a positive way.
Shared by:
Dot Ralitz, Faith Fellowship
I LOVE hearing about ministries like this! There are so many ways we can communicate the love of Jesus and please let me know if you have ones you'd like to share. My email is: yvon@effectivechurchcom.com
Please share your thoughts, comments, questions!