Advent Conspiracy

I have recently updated my "visit and support" section to the right, and I want to briefly highlight Advent Conspiracy. This is a coming together of several followers of Jesus who are proclaiming: "Advent Conspiracy is an international movement restoring the scandal of Christmas by worshipping Jesus through compassion, not consumption." The website has resources and information on how you and your church can get involved with sharing the love of Christ rather than purchasing ourselves into debt. I first heard of the idea last Christmas as Rick McKinley and the Imago Dei community decided to take all the money they would have spent doing the usual present buying, and they used it to bless the Portland community as well as putting it towards building fresh water wells in in other parts of the world.

Since Sarah and I have been married we made the decision to just do stockings for each other. In fact two years ago, our stockings seemed to get lost in one of our moves, and so my big gift to Sarah was new stockings with Mr. and Mrs. Harrison embroidered on, which started something new for our family. As God continues to grow us, and with the addition of Sawyer, we have decided that whatever money we spend on stuffing our stockings we have to at least match that in giving to those in need. We will be giving to the Belmont Foundation for sure, and then figuring out where to go from there. I feel so incredibly blessed to have Sawyer growing up knowing that Christmas is about our loving Father placing His son to live among us and changing everything forever. That we will gather as a family and share our stockings sure, but that Sawyer will share equally in giving with his family to others.

Earlier this week, Nate Beals took a few of us through Missions for Area People and we got to meet a few of the people we are partnering with, along with learning more about how we can care for those in need. We have such an incredible opportunity to be a blessing to the Muskegon area, and I am so grateful for the ways in which God has been melting and molding my heart within the process of launching the deep.

I hope you will check out some of the support sites to the right, and consider giving and participating in celebrating Jesus as the center of Christmas. That we will be apart of changing our culture from being consumers to being givers, which starts with you and I.

God is good
Wallace D.