Add One More Child to Your Christmas List

 

The Christmas season is here.  Getting ready to shop for a loved one?

Making a Christmas list?

Looking forward to that look of joy in a child's eyes when s/he gets up early to tear open wrapped gifts?

 

Well, there are 1.7 million children whose parents can't do that for them. There are 1.7 million children who will not celebrate Christmas with a parent. Why?

 

Because the parent is serving time in prison.

While the parent serves time, unfortunately so does the child.

They serve time waiting for a parent to get released.
They serve time with feelings of loneliness and depression.

In fact, the research shows prisoners' kids are more likely to end up in prison themselves and there are 1.7 million children whose parents are in prison.

 

Should the child have to pay for a parent's wrongdoing?

Should caring adults sit back and let children walk down paths of destruction?

 

Angel Tree doesn't think so. This organization steps in for the incarcerated parents at Christmas and provides a gift to their children. They also connect the children to local churches and the imprisoned parents with bible study groups, so that the long process of healing can begin.

This yearAngel Tree  hopes to reach 400,000 children of inmates. With a gift from you, they can reach their goal.  

 

Put a gift under the tree of a child whose parent is imprisoned, and put the parent in a position where s/he can learn to live again.
 
 Donate today.

Share Christmas; Share Christ

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“Ariel, why are you pouting?”

“Christmas is not coming to our house this year, Grandma.”  

“Baby Girl, Christmas comes every year.”

“Not as long as Mommy is behind bars.  It didn’t come last year or the year before that.”

For the three years just after Thanksgiving that was the conversation that I had with my grandmother after my mother was sentenced to five years in prison.   And every Christmas for two years I knew what I would find under the tree:  one outfit and two toys.  I was thankful but sad.

Last year was different though:  a stranger knocked on our door and brought me a fourth gift. 

Grandma wasn’t surprised to see her, and she let her in.  The stranger sat down and said she had something for me. I was shocked.

She handed a wrapped gift to me. When I looked at the tag, it said, “Ariel, I want you to have the happiest Christmas possible.  Love, Mom.”  Tears filled my eyes. This was a Christmas I would never forget.

And the woman began to explain how the love of Jesus motivated her to visit me that day and my mom last week in prison. I wanted to know that love.

That year was the first time I went to Sunday School, and every Sunday, Grandma, me and my mom have been learning just how much Jesus loves.

Ariel’s mom still has several more years in prison

Thanks to Angel Tree, Christmas is no longer the worst day of the year for her.

Mary Kay Beard, a former inmate, founded this organization to make sure children like Ariel feel a parent’s love at Christmas, and the entire family feels God’s love all year round. 

In addition to providing gifts to children of inmates   at Christmas, Angel Tree connects them to a church family and their parents to a Bible fellowship while in prison. Both parent and child learn the love and forgiveness of God as they wait for the parent’s release.

 Angel Tree hopes to reach 400,000 children this year, but there 1.7 million children   whose parents are in prison. With your small donation of $12.58, $50, $75, etc., Angel Tree can reach even more families, taking the message of God’s love to lonely children and to parents behind prison walls. 

 It’s not the gift; it’s the giver that makes the difference, and when a child receives a gift from an imprisoned parent at Christmas, a precious journey of hope begins. Help a prisoner parent become a giving parent at Christmas and spread the love of God to an entire family.  Donate today.

Give Water, Give Life

My name was Massani. I would have been four years old, but I died today.  I was playing the Ugandan game of kakopi with my friends when I began to feel sick and I didn’t want to play  anymore.  I ran to my mama and said, “Mama, mimi ni mgonjwa” which means, Mama, I feel sick.

 She felt my forehead and tried her remedy, but it did not help.  Nothing helped to cool down my warming body.  Then the diarrhea came.  I felt so weak.  I could tell that my mama was worried.  Mama always knew how to make me feel better.  Not this time.  She carried me to the nearest clinic which was three hours away and waited hours in line with my limp body, glad I was asleep.  She did not want to see me cry, but after five hours in line, the doctor told her I was asleep forever.   The doctor explained that my use of unclean water caused typhoid fever which caused my death.  He sees hundreds of cases such as these.

In fact, according to the World Health Organization over 2 million children die yearly because they do not have access to clean drinking water.

Massani symbolizes the massive problem of contaminated drinking water affecting poor countries around the world: Kenya, Ghana, India,  Equador, Haiti and so many more. 

The doctor could not help Massani, but there are many people around the world who have decided to get involved.  Dick and Terri Greenly of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma are working hard to prevent deaths like Massani’s from happening again. They have seen the impact of the global water crisis and refused to stand idly by.  Instead they formed the Water4 Foundation, which developed an affordable approach to reverse this catastrophe and provide access to clean water for all by producing hand drilling technology, so people in villages can dig their own wells.  

Your generous donation can sponsor a well , and children like Massani will have access to clean, life-giving water and pursue a productive life.

It’s scandalous to think that anyone can enjoy the comfort of a hot cup of coffee or a cool glass of water while families around the globe drink from waters that are not fit for dogs.  Millions are crying out, “I am dying for lack of clean water.”  Can you hear their plaintive voices?

Extend a compassionate hand across the globe to offer a cup of cold water to a child in need.  Go to  Water4  and make a  donation today.  One well can cost $600-$2000.00, and it can save an entire village.  You can help defray costs so more mothers, fathers and children can quench their thirst.