Calvary's Christmas Local Outreach Project

I am so proud of our church.

Just over 3 weeks ago, we invited anyone

from Calvary to "adopt" a child of a prisoner

for Christmas. These are kids who have a Mom or a Dad

in a State Prison.

This is a project organized by Angel Tree, a branch of

Chuck Colsen's ministry Prison Fellowship.

At first I committed to have our church adopt 50 kids.

I figured this was our first year at trying this and I wanted to

start with a number we could handle.

The Senior Pastor at Calvary, David Mitchell looked at the number

and told me he thought we could handle more.

So I trusted God and followed Dave's advice and bumped up the number of kids we would buy gifts for to 200.

My volunteer team and I were kind of nervous as we prepared to launch the project

three weeks ago. We wondered if we would be able to fill all of our kids requests.

I am humbled to report that in 2 Sundays, every kid we committed to buy Christmas presents

for was adopted by someone in our church.

In Matthew 25, Jesus tells his followers that they are to look after the least of those he loves,

"For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me."

I love that in a small way, Angel Tree is doing this. Ministering to families who are missing a Dad or Mom. Ministering to a Parent who feels the sting of poor choices but is encouraged to know that someone is buying a Christmas Gift for their child.

I pray that the kids and parents will see Jesus love for them in our small act towards them.

ps - I just found out today that Angel Tree is in desperate need for more people to adopt kids by providing Christmas gifts this month. If you are interested click here.