An Opportunity to Give

Wednesday night was the Angel Tree party. It's a big community outreach event that I coordinate for our church. We partner with Prison Fellowship to sponsor kids by purchasing Christmas gifts for children with an incarcerated parent. This year we sponsored 14 families and 34 children. Each child receives a practical clothing gift and a toy gift. We also make care packages for the caregivers with gift cards to Walmart, and this year, we also did a Chick-Fil-A gift card for everyone. We received a grant from Walmart to help us with costs. (Thank you, sweet husband, for getting me the application, and getting the application where it needed to go!)

At the party, we feed everyone pizza and cookies, arrange some entertainment (had a magic show and some musical presentations this year), and give out the kids' gifts, caregiver gifts, and Bibles to all the kiddos.

Now let me just back up and say that Angel Tree has taken the place in my life that Nutcracker used to occupy. :-) My friend, Jess, and I, work on Angel Tree from October until mid-December (when the party is)...but then we also have to report, debrief, and send info to the prisoners as to whether or not we were able to serve their family. So, it is a sizeable undertaking.

Honestly, there are times that I wish someone else were doing the work. That is, until I see the families that come to the party, and realize what a huge blessing Angel Tree is to these people.

And what else would I be doing with the time I spent on the Angel Tree project? I could spend it trying to keep my lovely and warm home clean, washing the ample amounts of warm winter clothing that my children have, and buying or wrapping presents that are not necessities. I think the time I spent working towards something that would help people who don't have those things was a much nobler use of those pockets of time.

When I get to meet the moms, dads, and grandparents who care for children under extremely difficult circumstances, because their husband or wife or child is in prison...who thanks me tearfully because there would be no presents for those children otherwise, because we've treated them with kindness and respect, because we've put time and energy into loving on and blessing them...I'm really glad that I've been given the opportunity to be an Angel Tree coordinator.

We had several Mommas, who expressed how hard it is to put food on the table, and our food pantry coordinator stepped up and was able to make several bags of grocery items available, as well as making sure they know when the food pantry runs each month.

There is a Biblical principal called gleaning, which I love. In Leviticus and Deuteronomy the Lord instructs the harvesters not to go over the fields a second time. Not to pick up what they've dropped, and not to harvest the grain, the grapes, the olives completely...but to leave the excess, the dropped, the missed pieces for the poor, the alien, the fatherless and the widow. It was God's way of providing for the poor through the excess of those who had more than enough.

I believe that we who have been blessed with ample provision truly have a duty to use some of our excess to give to others. We can be the hands and feet of Jesus to those who are struggling and feel hopeless. The appreciation that I saw in the eyes of many caregivers and children on Wednesday night, was worth more than a whole season of my own selfish Christmassing!