It’s Black Friday. Millions of people got up early, or put off sleeping, to wait in lines for the biggest deals of the season. It’s officially the Christmas buying season and billions – with a B – will be spent on consumer products in the next four weeks. The girls’ favorite catalog came in the mail last week….
So did mine…
This holiday season I encourage you to look beyond giving to just your family or coworkers and look to the global community. There are so many ways to give. Here are a few suggestions:
100% of your donation to Charity: Water is used to drill wells in developing nations. What I like about them is not only do they drill the wells, but they also teach the people the well serves how to maintain it. Many organizations don’t do this so if the well breaks or needs maintenance there can be issues where the people no longer have water again.
Amazima was started by a girl name Katie who visited Africa during her senior year of high school (I hope I’m remembering the story right). She went back “for a few months” after she graduated and has yet to return home to the States for good. After seeing the devastation she was unable to turn her back on the literally millions of orphans on the African continent. She started adopting children that came to her door for food and now has a house full of (over 13) daughters who now rely on her for food and shelter. She often takes in more children and mothers with young children as they come. She started an organization that can receive donations to sponsor children in her area… much like World Vision or Compassion International, but on a personal scale.
Your donation to World Vision helps developing nations in many ways including sponsoring a child, buying life-sustaining animals, funding micro-loans, giving clean water, and rescuing those enslaved by human trafficking. We love sitting down as a family and letting the girls pick out what animals they want to send to a family across the globe.
Samaritan’s Purse is an organization who reaches poverty-stricken communities in various ways including offering food, shelter, and medical services. They have many ways to opportunities for giving from nation building (Sudan and Haiti) to paying for heart surgeries for kids in third-world countries who are born with congenital heart defects.
Kristen from We Are That Family started an home in Kenya where pregnant women and girls can go to gain shelter, nutrition, and love in their decision to carry their babies to term in the poverty stricken nation. Kristen and her family’s decision to step out in faith and start such a great ministry in a true testament to what God can accomplish when we live in obedience. To find out more about their story or to give, please click on the logo above.
For something a little closer to home and perhaps a little more personal, donate your time by helping feed those in your community at a local food shelter; helping build a home for the homeless with your local Habitat for Humanity; helping mentor a child in your community at your local Boys and Girls Club. You can also bless hospitalized children and their families by donating Christmas toys to your local Children’s Hospital or money to your local Ronald McDonald House. If you don’t have a local pediatric hospital or RMH, please feel free to donate to the ones our family used during Ryan’s first year of life. You can find out more information about each by clicking on words in blue above.
(c) 2016 Leighann Marquiss