Top 10 Best Christmas Gifts
Not presented in a very orderly way, I’m afraid.
As we get closer to Christmas and closer to the end of the calendar year, I thought I might count down the Top 10 Christmas Gifts our congregation has blessed our mission field with, just in the month of December.
OK, hold on. Before I go any further though, yes, this is a little bit like tooting our own horn. Bear with me. I have a good reason for it. But you’ll have to keep reading through to #2 though if you want to know why I’m going on like this.
Note: Top 10 lists usually go in reverse order, working down to #1. That is not exactly the case here. I can’t possibly try to rank these gifts. They’re all pretty darn wonderful if you ask me! But I did reserve the top 2 places for the very, very best gifts. Otherwise, 10 through 8 are in no particular order.
Here goes:
10. Christmas Shopping at Little Free Libraries: Our little libraries are seeing an increase in books being taken. Apparently, folks are “shopping” for Christmas presents. I heard an opinion from someone who thinks people shouldn’t “shop” at the little libraries, that they’re just supposed to take one book to read, but I will respectfully disagree. What better way to use our gift of books than to give them for Christmas?? I LOVE that people are taking them for Christmas gifts! (My husband loves it too because it means our garage is starting to clear out so thanks for that Christmas gift!) Merry Christmas to each child who receives a gift from our little libraries!
9. Dessert: A no-brainer, I know. Dessert is a gift any time, not just Christmas. But this year, we had more than 120 servings of dessert for our Burks staff when we provided the Christmas luncheon for them. Doesn’t that sound heavenly?? I’m telling you, it was all I could do not to sample the amazing selection! At least one of the teachers squealed when she saw the gifts on the dessert table!
8. Daughters of the King in Juvie: Wait. What?? The Daughters in Juvie? Well, not physically. But one of the best things to come out of the relationship with the juvenile center is a gift from our own Daughters of the King. These fine women are devoted to praying for the girls we mentor and the boy Father Mike baptized last year. They pray daily by name for them which blesses the girls and me beyond measure! What a gift!
7. Angel Tree Gifts: This year, we adopted 57 angels and provided an addition 50 gift cards to the counselors at Burks for families in need. More than 75 people bought gifts and gift cards, and 30 people came to wrap all those gifts. Are you keeping up with the math? That’s over 100 volunteers, so at the very least, that’s 100 volunteer hours!! But what I love most is that when our fearless Angel Tree leader heard afterwards that there was another family in need, she didn’t turn them away but instead started looking around for someone to adopt them. Fortunately, Hands & Feet had a little money and could sponsor some of the gifts, and a member of our church family immediately stepped in and brought new toys for them. Another volunteer offered to do the wrapping! The Angel Tree is a gift to us as a congregation as well as to our families at Burks!
6. Flexibility & BBQ: I don’t mean yoga, ya’ll. I mean flexibility in volunteering. When the cold front swept in, BlessMobile volunteers packed almost 100 take out containers in their vehicles and drove over to Merritt, and braved freezing temps to deliver door-to-door so families could be spared. Two volunteers stayed behind to clean our mess after the food-packing was finished! Flexibility is an underrated character trait and a real gift, I tell you!.
About the BBQ, let me just say that we’ve got some serious bbq-cooking talent in our congregation! The smell was enough to make every stomach growl! We had 6 volunteers make pulled pork, smoked chicken, and bbq beef, plus a woman who provided enough mac & cheese for 100 meals! We had more than 20 volunteers come out to prep and deliver! It’s an amazing gift that our church is always ready to roll their sleeves up!
5. 500 Toiletry Bags, 150 “Warm Things,” 400 Books, a Little Free Library (And a partridge in a pear tree): You remember Sandbranch, right? The first community of freed black landowners in Dallas, now struggling with no accessibility to water. We’ve been praying for them for months. Just a week ago, we donated 500 toiletry/survival bags, 150 warm things including hats, gloves, scarves, and socks, 400 books and a little free library to their community. But wait! There’s more! The toiletries and warm things are not for the community itself. They’re for the community to serve the homeless in their area! So folks suffering in poverty are blessing people who are worse off! It’s a true gift to have them modeling servant leadership!
4. Turkeys & Drivers: What do we do with 15 turkeys unexpectedly donated by Trader Joe’s? We surprise the 15 families who received Thanksgiving baskets in time for Christmas! What a great gift! But how do we get the turkeys to the families? Facebook. No kidding — one post on Facebook, and 15 minutes later, I had a full slate of drivers. Of particular interest is that 3 of the 5 drivers are teachers. How amazing is it that teachers, who just got off for Christmas, turn around and offer the gift of selfless servanthood??
3. Pork Roasts & Potatoes: On a recent Sunday afternoon, I got a phone call out of the blue from a friend offering enough pork roasts and potatoes for over 200 meals, leftover from an event. He wanted to deliver it to us to use for our ministry. Almost 100 pounds of meat and 3 sacks of potatoes, delivered to our door! Now we have enough meat for next month’s Taco Tuesday AND Sunday dinner with the BlessMobile! A true gift to our ministry and mission field!
AND, here are the top 2 best Christmas Gifts this season:
2. YOU! You are why I’m tooting our horn, bragging about our outreach this month. And every month, for that matter. YOU! You are amazing! I thank you from the bottom of my heart for supporting this ministry, but more importantly, I thank God for you each and every day. He has blessed this congregation with a heart for the poor and an entrepreneurial spirit that makes it a real joy to lead this social transformation ministry. It takes my breath away. You are a gift to me personally, and to our mission field. Thank you.
1. The Reason for the Season: Of course you know the reason for the season is Jesus. He’s the real gift. And he gifted us with an abundance of talents, treasure, and time, with a passion for his people, with his mercy to use as an example in our ministry. He gifted us with his beautiful life and his brutal death.
So if you would, take a second to scan back over the list again and think about how often his face has shone upon our mission field this Advent. And, please join me in thanking our most gracious and generous Father for the gifts of the season, his son above all, and for calling us to serve his people.
Merry Christmas to you and yours!
~dana
