Christmas: the Ultimate Missional Holiday

For many years our church has participated in what we call the Giving Tree each December. It works like this (at least in its present form):

1. Our church secretary, Ruth, collects names of families who need help with Christmas
2. She sets up the Giving Tree, complete with numbered tags that say something like "boy, age 10, remote control car"... you get the idea.
3. Church members sign for and take the tags, bringing back wrapped gifts; others donate cash to help the families with Christmas dinner
4. Ruth, with help from Kyle and the youth group, organize the gifts by family groupings
5. The families come by and pick up their gifts or we deliver them... happening this week.

Our church family always comes through. This year we have been able to help 14 families, including 50 children. We even had a few coupons for Christmas trees donated through the Antioch PD. As families have come by to pick up gifts, we've seen lots of smiles. My guess is that Jesus is smiling too.