Love in Action

• Sponsor a needy child through Compassion
International. When you sponsor a child, your support connects a child with a church-based, Christ-centered program where your child will receive educational opportunities, health care, food and nutritional supplements, hygiene training, life-skills and, most important, the opportunity to hear the gospel and learn about Jesus. (For information on child sponsorship, click on the Compassion International link.)

• Bring dinner to a shut-in and stay and share the meal. Bring a tablecloth and a centerpiece to make it special. Have the kids make placemats, napkin rings, or other decorations.

• Select a poverty-stricken area of the world and have your kids research the culture, geography, and language of the area. Prepare food from that region and talk about the situation during dinner. Have your kids share what they learned.

• Run errands for someone who is unable to run errands for themselves.

• Read to residents in a nursing home or retirement center.

• Bring Christmas to a shut-in, a needy family, nursing home, homeless shelter, etc. Bring a tree, decorations, cookies, music, hot cider or hot cocoa. Spend the day decorating, singing carols, and enjoying fellowship.

• Serve dinner at a shelter on a regular basis.

• Fill backpacks for the homeless. Fill with toiletries, socks, inflatable pillow, first aid kit, and a Bible.

• Collect socks, blankets and coats for the homeless.

• Have your children go through their toys and books and choose some to donate, or sell in a yard sale and give the money to a charity that you choose together.

• Spend your family vacation on a mission trip.

• Bring Vacation Bible School to a poor neighborhood or a shelter. Bring crafts, lessons, decorations, substantial snacks, and treat bags for the kids to take home with them.

• Talk to your kids about poor areas of the world and how God feels about the people who live there. Pray for them.

• One day each month, serve your family what a typical meal would be for a family in a poverty-stricken area and talk about it during dinner.

Holidays are a wonderful time to be God’s heart in action for the poor and the needy. There are several organizations that serve Thanksgiving dinner to the hungry, and collect Christmas boxes for children that might not otherwise receive a gift. But please remember that these families are just as hungry, shut-ins are just as lonely, and children are sleeping on dirt floors every day of the year.

Serving Him Together,
LeAnn