Days 8 and 9

If you aren't familiar with my holiday charity blogging project, please take a minute to read this post I wrote describing it.

Day 8: Metropolitan Ministries

Their mission: From their website, "Metropolitan Ministries faithfully reaches out to poor, hungry and homeless men, women and children in their time of need — providing life-changing answers.Within our care, people find food, clothing, shelter, and other vital services. But more importantly they find compassion and hope – hope for a brighter day and future. The need in our community continues to grow, as it has since the Ministries began in 1972, and the Ministries’ commitment continues to grow as well.

We are committed to reaching out and providing answers that:

• help prevent homelessness
• ease hunger
• offer life-changing answers leading to self-sufficiency
• support to transition back into our community." 

Metropolitan Ministries is a charity operating out of the Tampa Bay area, so as with Good Samaritan Mission, it has the appeal for me of being a local organization that offers aid to my own community. If Tampa Bay is not local for you, please consider whatever comparable organization you could become involved in for your own community. There are many such non-profits across the country that could really use your support.

Metropolitan Ministries offers food, counseling, housing, and after school and day care for residents who are working to be freed from homelessness. Their goal is to meet the physical needs of the poor and homeless, as well as to offer job training and guidance to improving their situations. Many of their services are directed towards homeless women and children.

What you can do: Donate financially, volunteer, and donate food, clothes, and other necessities. As with most charities this season, they are in need of toys and food for the holidays, so there are many resources to help you get your donations into the hands of those that need them. Consider hosting a drive, donating items that are needed, or give in a host of other different ways. Their website makes it very easy, so please give it a look.

Day 9: Habitat for Humanity

Habitat for Humanity of Hillsborough County is the local branch for my area, but this organization has chapters all over the country. Take a look at your local Habitat for Humanity to see what they've got going on. On the website for Hillsborough County, it says that this chapter was started in 1987 and has built over 140 homes in the county.

Their mission: From their website: "The ultimate goal of Habitat for Humanity of Hillsborough County is to eliminate substandard and poverty housing and homelessness from Hillsborough County.  We build homes...build lives...and build hope.  Furthermore, all our words and actions are for the ultimate purpose of putting shelter on the hearts and minds of people in such a powerful way that poverty housing and homelessness become socially, politically and religiously unacceptable in our nations and world."

What you can do: Donate money, material goods, and/or your time, among other things. Habitat for Humanity is powered largely through volunteer work and corporate and community partnerships, so there's always a need to be met or a job to be done. 

Days 6 and 7

Moving on with my holiday charity list, we have days 6 and 7! (Anyone else think December is flying by?)

Day 6: The Salvation Army

The Salvation Army is not only an incredible charity organization, but it has a pretty cool history as well. It was founded in 1865 in England, and has done an enormous amount of charity work in the last 147 years, specifically targeting the homeless and impoverished world-wide.

Their Mission: Mission statement from their website, "The Salvation Army, an international movement, is an evangelical part of the universal Christian Church. Its message is based on the Bible. Its ministry is motivated by the love of God. Its mission is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and to meet human needs in His name without discrimination." They do work that focuses on aid for the homeless, rehabilitation for prisoners, disaster relief, youth outreach, services for the elderly, and human trafficking intervention, in addition to many other functions. It's basically a one-stop shop for almost any do-gooder.

What you can do: Donate food, cars, clothes, money, and other necessities, give monetarily, and, of course, volunteer. The Salvation Army operates on a huge volunteer base. According to their site, "More than 3,400,000 individuals of all ages volunteered their time, talents, and resources to assist The Salvation Army's work in FY 2010. Our volunteers are critical partners in helping us fulfill our promise to America of 'Doing the Most Good.'" They have a resource that allows you to find a place for your time and talents. If you are reading this, consider at least dropping a $5 in the little red kettle to make the bell-ringing Santa happy this year.

Day 7: Wikipedia.org

I know, I know, it's not a very sexy recommendation, but hear me out. Wikipedia provides good-quality information on basically everything. It's the compendium of all human knowledge, and it's free, and anyone with a computer has access to it. I know that my husband practically lives on it, and not a day goes by without me using it. It basically equips even the poorest person with good information to educate himself or herself. It's also available in 285 languages.

Their mission statement is: "The mission of the Wikimedia Foundation is to empower and engage people around the world to collect and develop educational content under a free license or in the public domain, and to disseminate it effectively and globally. In collaboration with a network of chapters, the Foundation provides the essential infrastructure and an organizational framework for the support and development of multilingual wiki projects and other endeavors which serve this mission. The Foundation will make and keep useful information from its projects available on the Internet free of charge, in perpetuity."

I think this is pretty cool. So please, if you use it, throw a few bucks Wikipedia's way this year.

Day 5

Moving on with the Christmas charity list. Please read my two earlier posts and this post about my holiday blogging project, if you haven't already. 

Day 5: The Ladybug Project

The Ladybug Project was started in 2010 by a personal friend of mine from college, and it has really gotten some steam in the short while since it was established. They are currently supporting education and healthcare efforts in Equatorial Guinea and Madagascar. According to their website, they have been undertaking "innovative education and healthcare projects in [Equatorial Guinea and Madagascar], by connecting over 200 volunteers, with an impact on 2,000 people in Africa."

Their Mission: From the website, "The Ladybug Project Inc. aims to connect donations to initiatives in Equatorial Guinea and Madagascar. These projects aim to help foster educational and health infrastructure in target countries." They are currently providing school supplies to 5 educational facilities, and they are now launching a health care initiative in 2 communities, and they are hoping to have these fully operational by 2014.

What you can do: Why, donate, of course! Their website also offers a very helpful resource for those who would like to raise funds or volunteer/intern for the Ladybug project. They are also in need of any educational and/or healthcare supplies that you can offer them. 

Days 3 and 4

And the Holiday Charity List continues!

Day 3: Wellspring International 

Wellspring International is an arm of Ravi Zacharias' ministry. Ravi Zacharias is one of my very favorite people, and I have greatly benefited from his extensive body of speeches, podcasts, and books. He is an apologist, scholar, and author whom I have great respect for. I will be posting about the parent organization for Wellspring, RZIM, later in the month.

Their Mission: From the Wellspring International website, "Wellspring International was established in 2004 by Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). A humanitarian arm of the organization, Wellspring International is an extension of the central focus of RZIM, where we live out what we preach and defend. Through a process of due diligence, the vision of Wellspring is to identify and financially equip existing organizations aiding women and children at risk, as well as to provide individual scholarships to support education, healthcare, and basic living needs." Wellspring provides aid to organizations in Cambodia, India, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Malaysia, South Africa, Syria, the Netherlands, and Zimbabwe.

What you can do: Donate money and host fundraisers through races, fashion shows, and whatever other means your creativity can come up with. The website provides ideas, resources, and support for starting your own fundraising campaign. You can research their various projects to make a decision on where you would like your funds to go, or you can just select "General Fund" to send your money wherever it is needed the most.

Day 4: Good Samaritan Mission

Good Samaritan Mission is another ministry that is very dear to me. Two of the directors are very dear friends of mine, and I have had the privilege of working for and with this mission in the past. I love their vision, and the fact that it is a local ministry that has a profound and beautiful impact on my community makes me have all the more affection for it.

Their mission: From their website, "The Good Samaritan Mission, Inc. is a charitable, not for profit, 501 (c) (3) Christian ministry. The Mission is dedicated to a holistic approach to enhancing the spiritual, emotional/psychological and physical quality of life of farm workers and others living in poverty. [...] Everything that we do is inspired by our love for Jesus, and is financed by private donations from friends like you." This Mission hosts a food pantry once a week, a clothes closet, a Spanish-speaking church service, after-school program, Bible studies, health and wellness resources, and a social worker to help people get the help they need. The Mission is constantly changing and adapting to the needs of the community, so please visit their website to see what new and exciting things they are up to.

What you can do: Donate, volunteer, give clothes, food, furniture, and whatever other resources you feel could be of value here. It would also be good to raise funds and awareness in your church or community. The Mission is tucked away in a little town in Florida, so the more people know about it, the more help they can give and receive. I know that they are low on many food items right now, specifically rice. Please consider making this mission a regular part of your giving this holiday season and in the coming year.

Days 1 and 2

If you have read this post, you know that I am promoting 24 different charities and non-profits between December 1 and Christmas Eve in order to encourage you to donate money instead of giving a lot of gifts this Holiday Season. I have to play a little catch-up today because I've been promoting them on my Facebook, but I haven't posted about them here yet, so here we go.

Day 1: Gospel for Asia

Gospel for Asia is by far the closest organization to Adam's and my heart. The mission of K.P. Yohannan, the founder of GFA, was singularly the strongest influence in our lifestyle decisions before and after we married. If you want your world to change, read Revolution in World Missions by K.P. Yohannan. (Found at the GFA Bookstore on their website).

Their Mission: From their website, "Our mission in life is to be devout followers of Christ and to fulfill the Great Commission among the unreached in Asia through training, sending out and assisting qualified laborers in partnership with the Body of Christ." GFA has Bible colleges that train native missionaries to teach their own people about the Gospel of Christ, which they can do for between $180-210 a month, as opposed to the $50,000 a year it costs to send a Westerner into the same regions.

They also provide valuable resources to the people in those areas, such as animals for food and profit, bicycles for the native missionaries, and church buildings, among other necessities. They can also build "Jesus Wells," which provide fresh water to the impoverished who are many times extorted by their leadership before they can have access to safe drinking water. 

What you can do: DONATE! You can give a specific amount to buy chickens, goats, Bibles, winter clothes, blankets and many other necessities to missionaries and the people they are reaching. You can also choose to sponsor a missionary for $30 a month, or just give any amount to their "Where Most Needed" option. They have made all of this extremely easy by creating a Christmas Catalog for you convenience.

Day 2: International Justice Mission

Their Mission: From their website: "International Justice Mission is a human rights agency that brings rescue to victims of slavery, sexual exploitation and other forms of violent oppression. IJM lawyers, investigators and aftercare professionals work with local officials to secure immediate victim rescue and aftercare, to prosecute perpetrators and to ensure that public justice systems - police, courts and laws - effectively protect the poor." 

"More children, women and men are held in slavery right now than over the course of the entire trans-Atlantic slave trade: Millions toil in bondage, their work and even their bodies the property of an owner.
Trafficking in humans generates profits in excess of 32 billion dollars a year for those who, by force and deception, sell human lives into slavery and sexual bondage. Nearly 2 million children are exploited in the commercial sex industry. The AIDS pandemic continues to rage, and the oppression of trafficking victims in the global sex trade contributes to the disease's spread.In many countries around the world, pedophiles find that they can abuse children with impunity." 

What you can do: Donate, Volunteer, Campaign, etc. There are many, many ways you can get involved in this effort to end slavery world-wide. Human trafficking is despicable, and I pray that we can be a generation that is known for fighting it, and fighting it hard. 

24 Days: I have made a holiday decision.

What if, when someone asked you 'what you want for Christmas,' you asked for a donation in your name to a charity? What if you made an agreement with your family and friends to exchange donations in each others' honor instead of trying to 'come up with something' to ask for? What if you made a donation in the memory of a family member or friend whom you've lost?

We have a lot of thingies. We pile them in our garages and attics and closets and bag them up to get rid of them every few years to make room for more thingies. Instead of giving piles of toys and clothes and doo-dads to people who already have everything, we should really be spending a lot of that money on people who are hurting, starving, or oppressed this year.

For this reason, I'm going to promote some of my favorite ministries, missions, and non-profit organizations on my Facebook and this blog everyday from now to Christmas Eve and make it my mission to encourage people to set aside at least some of their Christmas excess for those who are in desperate need. I'll post the missions and non-profits on Facebook and offer more detailed promotions on this blog.

You don't have to choose to support anything that I post (although I would love it if you would), but I do challenge you to find something dear to your heart that you can promote with your wallet as well as with your words. Please don't think of 'being charitable' as optional. Think instead that this is our duty as one of the wealthiest societies in the world, and, for Christians, this is especially applicable. If you call yourself a follower of Christ, I urge you to put your money where your mouth is.

This doesn't mean you can't give your family members anything. Make something for them and wrap it and give it as a gesture of love. Spend time together. Start a new tradition. Cook and eat together. Build holiday memories that can bring your family or your home closer together.  

I'm not saying anything you won't find in every Christmas movie ever. 

So, really, people. Let's be serious about this.
 _____________

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal;  for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. [...] No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. Matthew 6:19-24 (NASB)
_____________

Humbug

The holidays are upon us. You know what that means - cookies, weight gain, lights, and the monstrous cancer of unresolved family drama bubbling back up to the surface of our repressed, oh-so-very repressed, psyches.

Fa la la la... ah, whatever.

I was reading this article about Andy Stanley and his father, Charles Stanley. I had no idea who these people were before reading the article, but apparently they are Southern Baptist giants of one kind or another. Basically, the father was a big Baptist preacher, and his son looked like he was going to follow in his footsteps. After a divorce that caused an earthquake of controversy in their church, the father felt like his son was not being supportive of him, so the father responded by being combative in a passive-aggressive, work-his-personal-problems-into-his-sermons kind of way. The son wound up leaving the church and starting his own, and their relationship was wounded for years.

It saddened me that, first, they were both so childish. Neither of them would talk to the other and explain himself. It was also sad that this had to be performed in such a public way, with the whole church looking on.

I was impressed that, later in the article, the father and son began to meet each other for meals. They were both extremely uncomfortable (the article calls the meetings 'excruciating'), but they kept meeting for them anyway and forcing themselves to talk to one another. They did this regularly, almost religiously, until they began to have a relationship again and find the love they used to have for one another.

Family drama, especially from the outside, looks petty and unnecessary, but from the inside, it's incredibly real, painful, and cosmic in its significance. No one can hurt you like your family. No one knows all your tender places, all your weakest points, like the people whom you have grown up with or lived with. From the outside, people think, 'Oh my gosh, just talk to one another,' or, 'Um... you guys are saying, like, the same thing,' or, 'Does that really matter that much to you?'

People are walking away from their marriages, from their siblings, from their children, and from their parents, and ripping holes in themselves that are so very, very hard to mend.

I guess that, in all this diatribe, I'm trying to say, 'Talk to your family members. Get in the habit of good communication. Then, the holidays won't be so awful, because you have good habits. Call your parents. Call your brother or sister or son or daughter or aunt or cousin or spouse or meet them for an excruciating meal and just talk*. Take the high road. Listen to each other. Forgive each other. Go to therapy, if you have to. This is not how you want to live your life. The weight of this will sink your heart, and the holidays will remain dark, dark times, growing darker every year until that year when, finally, someone has died and you can't fix it anymore.'

I pray everyday that we protect this little unit with unbridled aggression

---------------------------------------------

*Disclaimer: if you are a victim of violent abuse, please don't contact whoever that is. You should probably be in a controlled environment, like a therapy session, before you ever get in contact with that person directly. I'm talking about relational issues, not violent crimes. I have many friends for whom this is the case, and I don't want my statements to be misleading or dangerous for them (hahaha, I flatter myself that anyone takes my advice... but seriously, don't do anything dangerous).