By Ed Thompson
Christmas is coming! Although we may enjoy the sights and sounds of the season, the shorter amount of time between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year probably ramps up the pressure we feel to get gifts for everyone on our list.
What can we get for someone who has everything or who tells you that they don’t need anything? Rather than a tie, sweater, or candle, you might consider giving a gift to a particular cause or organization in their name. While your mailbox may be inundated with requests from various groups, let me suggest three options that you might not have considered.
One is Bluestone. You could make a donation to their Molly Gant Scholarship Fund, which was created in 2004 after the death of a girl who loved the camp and is used to cover camp registration fees for children and youth. Give a gift in any amount by sending a check made payable to the Presbytery of West Virginia with Molly Gant Scholarship Fund in the memo line.
We also promote Send a Kid to Camp to our churches, suggesting that they donate the funds to cover the cost of an entire week of camp for a child in their congregation or community or, if they do not have someone in mind, someone identified by Bluestone. That amount varies according to the age of the camper. This past year, Pioneer Camp for rising 3rd graders cost $240, and Discovery Camps and Venture Camps for rising 4th/5th, 6th/7th, 7th/8th, and 9th/10th graders cost $340. That amount would be a very generous gift by an individual, but it’s something churches might consider doing now if they find themselves blessed with some unexpected gifts at the end of the calendar year.
Think though about the difference you can make in the life of a kid or a teenager by giving them the opportunity to have a week in a safe space, enjoy nature, make friends, and hear the gospel – maybe for the first time. For some, that could be life changing. For most, it will be an opportunity they might not have otherwise had. That would be a good gift, as well as a good investment.
Another option would be to give a backpack to a former prisoner through the West Virginia Council of Churches. They have established Community Reentry Councils in each probation/parole region in the state to work with offenders and ex-offenders. These councils ”bring together human services, faith communities, corrections, law enforcement, courts, and social services agencies in order to address barriers to reentry such as housing, employment, behavioral health, substance abuse, family services and help resource positive youth development, benefits, and food assistance.” They are doing good work.
Where the backpacks come in is when people are released from a correctional facility, they are given their clothing and other personal items in a plastic trash bag. Some of them are picked up by family and friends so that doesn’t matter, but others are basically out on their own and it’s easy to identify them as ex-offenders as they are walking around carrying perhaps everything they own in a plastic trash bag. Making backpacks available to those being released gives them some dignity as well as some anonymity. It’s a small thing, but it can make a big difference.
The state estimates that they would need 1,000 backpacks a year, though one probation/parole region says they alone would need 1,000 backpacks a year. If you get your backpacks to the presbytery office, I’ll get them to the West Virginia Council of Churches. Or you could also donate directly to the Council of Churches through their website. You could also donate a basic needs kit or items from that.
Finally, you might want to consider giving a gift through the Presbyterian Giving Catalog. As it says, your “gift provides help, hope and relief to people, families and communities in need.” There are all kinds of options for giving from water pumps, wells, sewing machines, farming tools, and fishing nets to teacher training and support for urban farms. You could find something that sounds interesting or that will help folks in a particular part of the world. Click here to easily see all the gifts on one page.
Your congregation could also take part in “Links of Love” to promote such giving. The idea is to build a paper chain, adding a link for every gift made through the Presbyterian Giving Catalog. The plan is for Presbyterian Giving Catalog the to “collect the paper chains from each congregation and connect them all at the 224th General Assembly in Baltimore in 2020, showing the enormous difference small gifts can make in the lives of others around the world. Our goal is to reach 1,000 feet! Every congregation is encouraged to use their creativity and vision and make the Links of Love activity their own, but we also have tools and ideas to make it easy to get started.”
There’s nothing wrong with giving ties, sweaters, or candles, but rather than giving some stuff your friends or family members really don’t need, why not help a child go to camp, assist someone make a fresh start in life, or aid people struggling in poverty? What’s a better way to honor the birth of our Savior?