by Terry Jaurena
As we round the corner into this week of Thanksgiving I notice how our consumer culture is ramping up for its own version of Christmas. Shop now, shop more, shop until you drop. Spend money you don’t have to make this Christmas magical, special, the best. I realized years ago that maybe that’s a lie that I don’t need.
It started in 2006 when I discovered an Advent Conspiracy video and heard an invitation to keep Christmas differently: Worship Fully, Spend Less, Give More, Love All. Four really simple ideas that are, “founded on the radical idea that we can celebrate Christmas humbly, beautifully, and generously.” Doesn’t that sound so refreshing? “Advent is the story of a wondrous moment when God entered our world to make things right. It is the greatest story ever told and it changes everything …” It stirred in me a deeper longing for that story to change the way I kept Christmas.
That’s when I talked our Mission Ministry Team into launching an Alternative Christmas Gift project. We quantified what various levels of contributions would provide to some of our mission partners, right here in Fresno and all around the world. $5 could buy a soccer ball in Albania or breakfast for homeless children in Africa. $10 might provide a day's worth of wipes for an orphanage in Ecuador, a Bible for a new believer in many places, or library books for a school in India. You get the idea. Your “gift” to someone is a contribution that invests in a specific place, providing something meaningful for their ministry.
I love Alternative Gifts the way Julie Carter loves the Messiah Sing-Along. Is this your first Christmas @ FPC? I’d love to introduce you to this opportunity to gift differently & I pray it will become a meaningful tradition for you. Are you one of many in our FPC family who have still not tasted and seen how sweet Alternative Gift Giving can be? I hope you’ll reconsider this annual invitation to gift just a little alternatively.
This year’s Gift List is available to download Shopping List 22.pdf and you can also order online here. We’ll have a little Gift Fair after both services Sunday, December 4 on the church patio. We will happily walk you through the process. On subsequent Sundays we’ll have a “check out station” where you can collect your gift inserts and cards. We even have an online order form for 24/7 alternative shopping.
We provide a gift insert that describes the donation you’ve made in honor of your gift recipient and a fun, FPC artist Christmas card to wrap your gift. I love our Alternative Gifts, and there are other ways you can press into those Advent Conspiracy ideas.
Maybe you want to give your alternative gift recipients some choice? Consider a Kiva gift certificate. Kiva is a crowdfunded microloan platform that lets you (or your gift recipient) select an approved loan recipient. And when it’s repaid to you, you can do it all over again. They have a 96% repayment rate. This has become my graduation gift, inviting recipients to a lifetime of loaning that makes a real difference in someone else’s life. Oh, the people and the places your investment could impact!
Can’t quite embrace the idea of a donation to an impactful ministry or a microloan as a gift for your family members or friends? Then let me invite you to consider the next best thing. Shop fair trade and let your purchases make a Kingdom impact.
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Shop at Tagua Fair Trade in Fig Garden. They have beautiful, practical things that make great gifts. And they are local.
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Shop the Haitian Bead Project. It’s the fruit of a serve & learn trip that Fresno folks took to Haiti in 2011, providing economic development in a specific community.
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Shop the micro enterprise network called Heavenly Treasures. Also beautiful, practical things from all over the world.
Friends, I believe that the way we keep Christmas can, as the Advent Conspiracy website says, “tell the story of Jesus to the watching world,” because “God is not finished with our world and He is inviting us deeper into the Christmas story.” May the Lord help us all to dive deeper this Advent season.
Explore more on the Advent Conspiracy Website!
Watch the Advent Conspircy Introduction Video
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