Re: Happy Holidays All...Thanks Shaun and Barb

[Guest guest]

> The Simple White Envelope

>

My wife and I have been doing a similar thing for years.

Yes, we buy each other a few small personal things, and we give our

children gifts; but generally for each other we have been sending food,

tools and school supplies to Africa through organisations like the UN.

Also, we do this for our siblings and have the tax receipts sent to

them in their names. It feels really good to do this - and feeling

good is what life is about!

[Editor's Note: We're the same as you, Brent. We support the Heifer Project

which buys animals with which the poor can get milk, eggs, cloth, a source of

revenue...and the animals have babies which must be given to others! It's like

the old saying: " Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to

fish and you feed him for a lifetime. " My church is also buying a whole " ark "

of animals in 2007. You can read more about it on www.heifer.org. I promise

you'll feed good giving - and receiving - a gift like this. Kathy F.]

[Guest guest]

Kathy F., thanks for the info about the Heifer Project. What a great

program!

sherry z

[Editor's Note: So glad you like it. Our Sunday School kids earned enough

money from car washes and running errands to buy a poor family a cow this year.

As stated on the Heifer Project web site: " A single Heifer cow can deliver up

to four gallons of protein-packed milk every day. Giving one of these cows to a

hungry family changes their lives. These four gallons of milk provide children

with the nourishment they need to head off to school. A school that many

children are able to attend only because of their Heifer cow. Income earned by

selling surplus milk pays for tuition as well as medicine, clothing and better

housing. Heifer cows can help crops grow. They are after all a natural

fertilizer factory. Because a healthy cow can have a calf every year, your gift

could eventually help an entire community move from poverty to self-reliance. "

If you can't afford a cow, you can buy a family a share of a cow, or a family of

ducks, or rabbits, or llamas... Along with the animals, the Heifer organization

teaches these families how to care for their animals in a humane way while also

teaching other principles. As with Habitat for Humanity and a number of other

wonderful organizations, the requirement that the people who receive these

animals have to share their offspring with others helps to ensure that our gifts

go on in perpetuity. There are so many wonderful organizations and the needs

are all so great. The important thing is to recognize the real message of the

season and substitute at least one gift every year with a gift that helps people

truly in need. That was, is and always will be, the real meaning of Christmas.

Something like this isn't in lieu of a holiday toy campaign in which the point

is to outright give a gift for needy children (something many of us already do)

- the point here is to give gifts to your friends and family (and to ask them to

give gifts to you) that help others because that is truly the best kind of gift.

Kathy F.]

>> [Editor's Note: We're the same as you, Brent. We support the

Heifer Project which buys animals with which the poor can get milk,

eggs, cloth, a source of revenue...and the animals have babies which

must be given to others! It's like the old saying: " Give a man a fish

and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a

lifetime. " My church is also buying a whole " ark " of animals in 2007.

You can read more about it on www.heifer.org. I promise you'll feed

good giving - and receiving - a gift like this. Kathy F.]

>