Thanks to all the ladies who entered our Christmas Book Giveaway. Congrats to the winners of When the Soul Mends!
Below are what some of the entrants shared about how they are reaching out to others over the holidays:
Laura Anne: I teach the Wednesday night religion class for high schoolers at my church. I had the teens write out Christmas cards for the soldiers in Iraq and then I sent them to the man I’m courting who is stationed there for the year. He will pass them out to the soldiers on Christmas Eve or Day. We sent over 60 cards! I was so proud of my students and it was a great feeling to remember many of these heroes at Christmastime who have to spend the holiday without family.
Joelle: I was able to help bless my deacon and deaconess by giving them a fireplace! It was something they had wanted but couldn’t afford at the moment. They were so surprised and blessed to receive it.
Melanie: I am blessing my mother and in-laws with scrapbooks full of pictures of us and the grandchildren from the past year.
Anonymous: This Christmas my church was able to go to our local mall and freely sing the songs for our Christmas Cantata. We were able to pass our preaching cd’s and other info. I will also be playing special music for Christmas in my church.
Hannah: I am doing a 12 day blogging celebration on my blog. I will be posting inspirational articles, poems, songs, and thoughts each day (Lord willing), to celebrate the 12 Days of Christmas.
Rachel: My small group at church is “adopting” a family that has had a hard year. We are giving them gifts of toys, clothing and books, along with a Bible for each member of the family. We will wrap the gifts for them and give them to the mother so that her children have gifts from her on Christmas day. We’re also giving them a gift card for a grocery store so they can have a wonderful Christmas dinner. We’ve had fun thinking of ways to bless this family, and we feel blessed to have been given this opportunity.
Linnea: My family sings together and we did a number of programs last weekend that included lots of small ensemble vocal music, instrumental music, and Scripture as my dad tied everything together with the gospel message. We pray that ministry was a blessing to people and gave them a glimpse of a family who loves the Lord and each other and seeks to honor Him in everything!
Anonymous: I’ve been praying for all my close friends that have been struggling with various things in their lives. I feel like that the best way to bless them, even though they might not know it right away. I feel like God can do ever so much in their lives than I could ever do. It’s the one small contribution I can make.
Amanda: I’m a college student, which at this point equals a bit financially strapped, but I’m hoping to use my upcoming Christmas break to spend some more time with my mother, who is in a spiritual dry spell at the moment. I’m hoping that being home with her and spending time in the word together will help to encourage her to keep persevering during this difficult time.
Kendra: I go to a secular college…I know most of my classmates on a friendly basis. As the end of the term was coming and Christmas was nearing, I began to think about what I could do to share the love of Jesus with them in a way that would be non-threatening to people of any religious background. So, I decided to give each person in my class a little paper on the history of the candy cane and how it relates to Jesus Christ and the Biblical Christmas celebration. I accompanied this paper with home-made candy cane cookies. Today was the last day of class for this semester and I was able to hand the cookies/paper out to my classmates.
Erin: Yesterday I spent almost four hours cleaning my pastor’s house because his wife had been in the hospital for several days and they had relatives coming in that night. A friend and I went over and washed laundry, scrubbed down the bathrooms, washed down the kitchen, swept and mopped floors and even more. Both of us really loved being able to love and encourage them in this way.
These are beautiful ways!
For my family, today we are going to deliever cookies to those who have beeen big helps to us this year: chiropractors, doctors, and libraians. We will also make sure that our mail lady and the garbage men get some as well.
It isn’t much, but it is a small way that we can show the love of Christ!!
This was a beautiful read. I think that often we can get caught up in our own Christmas anticipation and joy, and forget to share Christ’s love with others. Bless you all for your truly Christian attitude… and thanks for the inspiration!