Something to think about doing . . .
We are challenging the youth to tithe their Christmas presents to give to our Clean Water Project. For CWP, we are trying to raise $5,000 for providing water filters for 250 families in Africa. We are at ~$4,400 right now. We have two things left: Parent's Night Out and then the Christmas Party where we will tithe our Christmas.
Jennifer and I have struggled over the past several years of being married about the commercialism of Christmas. Sam's club had the Christmas display up by October 1 and music playing by Nov 1. People go crazy and go overboard. It is much more meaningful to give at Christmas rather than just get, get, get stuff that I don't need. Two years ago, all we wanted for Christmas was money to be able to go to Mali on a mission trip with our church. It was the first time we were out of the country and it was worth it! It was so hard, but much better than any gift that I could receive.
Our church just sent a team over there and the got to Mali tonight. One of the ladies will be staying over there for four months helping organize all of the volunteer teams from different churches that come to Mali and also to minister to the Bambara people group. Be praying for them!