Franki and Mary Lee wrote about giving back on their blog this week. You can read their post at: http://readingyear.blogspot.com
Franki and Mary Lee got me thinking about our own giving during the Christmas season. Besides sponsoring a child for Compassion International throughout the year, we do something special in December. Each year, my own children choose gifts from Alternative Gifts International http://www.alternativegifts.org to give to their godparents. My wife and I give a gift to the adults in our lives from this organization. Our church sponsors a gift market each year (http://www.ourfatherlutheran.net). It's usually the youth and their families that sponsor a booth in our fellowship hall on "shopping day."
Franki and Mary Lee got me thinking about our own giving during the Christmas season. Besides sponsoring a child for Compassion International throughout the year, we do something special in December. Each year, my own children choose gifts from Alternative Gifts International http://www.alternativegifts.org to give to their godparents. My wife and I give a gift to the adults in our lives from this organization. Our church sponsors a gift market each year (http://www.ourfatherlutheran.net). It's usually the youth and their families that sponsor a booth in our fellowship hall on "shopping day."
Alternative Gifts International is a non-profit organization that inspires support for humanitarian and environmental causes. They offer donors the option to designate charitable gifts through carefully selected agencies in the name of their relatives, friends, and associates. It's a great way to give a gift in someone's name.
You can choose from a catalog of projects around the world (http://www.alternativegifts.org/projects). For example, you can choose "Educating and Mobilizing Disabled Children" in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or "Learning to Read & Sew for Success" in India, or "Gardening & Critter Care for Happy Families" in Bolivia. The website has a catalog of choices; there's a rich assortment of projects, prices, and possibilities.
With each gift, you can choose a special card to accompany your gift. Here are a few examples:
One touch of the nature makes
the whole world kin.
--William Shakespeare
the whole world kin.
--William Shakespeare
How wonderful it is
that nobody has to wait
a single moment before
starting to improve the world.
--Anne Frank
that nobody has to wait
a single moment before
starting to improve the world.
--Anne Frank
Today, we bring 'simple gifts'
to a troubled world,
Seeking hope for peace in a new day.
to a troubled world,
Seeking hope for peace in a new day.
Glad tidings to the earth they sing:
To us this day a child is given,
To crown us with the joy of heaven.
This is the season to remember those who may need our help and support... Thanks to Franki and Mary Lee for the reminder!
What a great organization!
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