It was a child’s birthday party, with the guest of honor decked out in her best, fresh flowers and a lovely meal of rice with vegetable sauce on the rough-hewn table. Sarah (pronounced Sah-rah) was ten years old, and we happened to be visiting in Lichinga, Mozambique over her special day. Piles of gaily-wrapped gifts were noticeably missing—in fact, we were the only ones to give her a present of that sort. From our bags of American stuff, we pulled a handmade doll donated by friends at home. To see the delight on not only Sarah’s face, but all nine of the orphaned children who live here---and the way they shared that little doll among themselves…well, that could be my Christmas right there.
Because of Sarah, and Gideon, and Antonino, and the many children we have met in our travels, there came a germ of an idea…how could we connect our two worlds? How could we “stop for the one”, as Heidi Baker suggests, to not be so overwhelmed by the tremendous needs in Africa that we become paralyzed, but to do just what we can? So we cranked out a brochure and promoted “Christmas Hope”, in which you were asked to write a letter to a Mozambican child and enclose $6 to be used for school supplies, hygiene items, or clothing. We hoped to gather 120 letters to send with Liana and the team going to Africa for Christmas.
Meanwhile, Liana’s musician friends staged not one, but three concerts in the last six weeks, donating proceeds to our Christmas Hope project. Rather large checks started arriving as well, from people who really didn’t want to write 20 letters! In the end, we were begging anyone who would listen to just write the letters and forget about enclosing the money—we know these letters will be treasured by the children.
Well, Liana’s team departed last night, taking with them 150 letters and double the money we were envisioning sending! Thank you, thank you for embracing this project—the team gets the very fun part of the deal, passing out letters and gifts and helping the children write return letters. So many letters were filled with encouragement and blessing. Thank you for being a voice of hope, which is so key to the Christmas season. “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light…” Into a world of hopelessness and despair enters Jesus, Emmanuel, God-with-us. Thank you for being Jesus to a child this Christmas!
Because of Sarah, and Gideon, and Antonino, and the many children we have met in our travels, there came a germ of an idea…how could we connect our two worlds? How could we “stop for the one”, as Heidi Baker suggests, to not be so overwhelmed by the tremendous needs in Africa that we become paralyzed, but to do just what we can? So we cranked out a brochure and promoted “Christmas Hope”, in which you were asked to write a letter to a Mozambican child and enclose $6 to be used for school supplies, hygiene items, or clothing. We hoped to gather 120 letters to send with Liana and the team going to Africa for Christmas.Meanwhile, Liana’s musician friends staged not one, but three concerts in the last six weeks, donating proceeds to our Christmas Hope project. Rather large checks started arriving as well, from people who really didn’t want to write 20 letters! In the end, we were begging anyone who would listen to just write the letters and forget about enclosing the money—we know these letters will be treasured by the children.Well, Liana’s team departed last night, taking with them 150 letters and double the money we were envisioning sending! Thank you, thank you for embracing this project—the team gets the very fun part of the deal, passing out letters and gifts and helping the children write return letters. So many letters were filled with encouragement and blessing. Thank you for being a voice of hope, which is so key to the Christmas season. “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light…” Into a world of hopelessness and despair enters Jesus, Emmanuel, God-with-us. Thank you for being Jesus to a child this Christmas!
