This year for Christmas I want to give more than just a gift to those around me. It’s constantly in the media that we need to buy this item or that item for our family or friends for Christmas. And if you have kids..the list is endless on the number of toys out there and which ones that kids want. Though, this year, I find myself stopping and doing some serious soul searching. What do I want Christmas to be about this year..to those who are close to me?
It’s been a hard year for my family as we said good-bye to my grandpa, Allan Hanke. It was one of the hardest things I’ve had to do in a long time. I know He’s in Heaven with my Heavenly Father, but the pain is still there.
There’s comfort in knowing that grandpa is in Heaven and I will see him again some day. Though there are many in the world who haven’t heard the Good News and heard about a Savior who loves them so much that He brought His Son to this earth so that they could have Eternal Life with Him forever.
Every year for the past at least seven years we have been involved with Operation Christmas Child through Samaritan’s Purse. We fill a shoebox with items for a child overseas who doesn’t typically receive a Christmas gift. Yet for the first time, they not only receive a physical gift; they get to hear about the Eternal Gift. I was privileged six years ago, when Youth for Christ South Africa joined Samaritan’s Purse in delivering shoeboxes to children at one of the township schools that we worked at. It was an experience I will never forget.
So, this year, my friends aren’t getting a physical gift from me, instead in their honor a child is receiving a shoebox and the salvation message. Friends are truly God’s gift to us with skin on. I have been blessed with so many of them all around the world.
And this is the reason that my heart yearns to be in Tanzania sharing God’s heart with the girls and women there. God desires for all to hear about Him and know that there is Hope where there seems to be little, Restoration where there is Pain and Eternal Life with Him.
Being God’s voice, hands and feet to His children in Tanzania is a great honor and opportunity.
So, I ask that this year you look beyond all the advertisements that are flooding our media and our minds. To take a moment and stop.. And decide that this year you will not give physical gifts to those you love, but in their honor you will give to those who are spreading the message of Salvation to those around the world. That you are taking a stand this year and blessing a person thousands of miles away with the knowledge of Eternal Life.
Thank you for partnering with the work that God is doing in Tanzania and being a part of having our brothers and sisters in Tanzania hear about the Wonderful News of our Lord!
Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year!
Natalie Green
Missionary to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Natalie Green
Missionary to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
50 people/families X $25 per month X 1 year = The Eternal Gift reaching Tanzania
Donations are tax deductible through the Assemblies of God World Missions. Make checks payable to Natalie Green indicate acct.# 610006-9 on the memo line. Checks can be mailed directly to: 709 Sixth Street Menasha WI 54952. Receipts to follow.
