Post Theme: Christmas in July
It’s shortly after mid-night. My alarm will go off in four hours and fifty-five minutes. I should be asleep. Instead, I’ve been lying awake, staring at the ceiling with weeping heart and racing mind. Things have been busy the past few weeks. But tonight the chaos dissolved into background noise. The to-dos are all still there, but one email drowns them all out.
We’re finalizing our list of children who will be receiving backpacks and school supplies this year. Tonight, I received a list from a teacher in my church naming the children in her sphere of influence who are in moderate to extreme need. The list is nearly one and a half times the number of children we provided supplies for last year. The stories that go with the names are heart-wrenching. All evening, while trying to work on other FTN projects, that email kept pulling me back.
Her school is in an outlying community, still local and in keeping with the reach of the project, but a bit of a distance. The community has a special place in my heart. It languishes in brokenness, heart-ache, loss, depression, substance abuse, and pain. It’s a community in which, for the first and only time in my more than two decades of children’s ministry, a child bit me and drew blood! But nearly twenty-five years later, I still pray for that boy because he and his brother found a forever place in my heart.
How do we meet the need?
As I read this teacher’s email, I know backpacks, school supplies, children’s Bibles, and forgiveness coloring books are not enough. They barely scratch the surface of the real need. Then, the chaos begins to creep in again. How? How can we replicate there what we do here with the time, space, volunteers, and financial resources currently available? Can we expand that much in an office the size of a walk-in closet? How can we train those interested in helping and fund the purchases of supplies, fuel, materials and curricula?
And then, the audiobook I’ve been listening to breaks into the questions. Tears fill my eyes as I am reminded: The need is bigger than we are, but God is bigger still. So, we lay down our all, take the Savior’s hand, step out of our comfort zone, and into the arena of risk where God delights to show Himself strong.
This Is Why We’re Doing Christmas in July
This year’s Christmas in July project is a summer take on the Green Bean Project with a distinctly local focus. It’s bigger than just “Backpacks for Kids.” We’ve put much emphasis on the backpacks because that is our current goal—a goal that just got much bigger. But really, we want to bring attention to the local ministry as a whole. NOT to draw attention to ourselves, but to give you and our community an opportunity to help us reach little, aching hearts and lives with the love of Christ.
Below is a link to a landing page, detailing five practical ways you can assist both in that growth and in providing school supplies for Montana kids. Please check it out. We’re trusting God to answer all the how’s and supply all the needs. But we’re also inviting you to have a part, to make an investment that will be added to your account—an account that bears interest into eternity.
