As many of you know, my youngest sister Sarah is moving to Barcelona, Spain in the New Year.
This is very exciting for her and her husband (and pretty exciting news for us too; we’re already planning our first summer vacation in Europe to visit them!). But it does make Christmas shopping tricky.
It wasn’t that long ago that I had to pack up all my belongings and move across the country. That was a big enough pain! I simply cannot imagine going through the same process but adding the difficulty of either getting it across the ocean, packing it away in storage for 36-months, or just giving stuff away to whoever will take it.
So I wasn’t surprised when my sister said she didn’t want “anymore stuff” this Christmas. I pleasantly surprised, though, when asked me, “Have you ever heard of those places that will send little chicks to villages in the developing world? I’d like somebody to do that for me for Christmas.”
Have I ever heard of them? Have I ever! One of my best friends in seminary spent two years working for Heifer International. The youth group at the last church I served had a tradition of saving up all year long in order to buy service animals for folks across the globe, and even proudly displayed pictures in their youth lounge representing the scores of animals they had sent all over the world.
Heifer is one of my favorite charitable organizations and their Gift Catalog is available online. With a single, secure click on their webpage you can send a family or a community the gift of sustainability.
Not to ruin the surprise (on the off chance that my sister is reading along on the church blog) but I made a donation in Sarah’s name for the “Flock of Hope”. For a donation of $60 “the Flock of Hope will include chicks, ducklings and goslings that will grow up to lay precious eggs that mean hope and increasing health and prosperity for hungry families from the Philippines to Rwanda.”
Church World Service has a similar program with their Best Gift Catalog where you can donate towards chicks, cows, medications, hygiene kits, school supplies, wells, mosquito nets and more.
They make great last minute gifts that make a real difference in the world!
Yours in the journey, Rev. Brian
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