Advent Conspiracy

We’d like to share with you a decision that our family and church have made about Christmas this year. In an attempt to reclaim the meaning of Christmas, we’ve decided not to participate in the consumerism that dominates so much of our time and energy and resources at Christmas time. We’re still celebrating, but in a way that speaks to the meaning and purpose of the season. We’re committed to focusing our time and energy and resources on strengthening our relationships, worshipping fully and giving to those who are truly needy.

Here’s how this affects our family: We will be giving gifts this Christmas that have more personal value, but less monetary value. The money that we would’ve spent on gifts we will be giving to serve the hurting world through Servant Partners to further holistic church planting in the slums of Mexico City. This is the ministry that Paul, Jae and Carisa have all visited over the past 2 summers. We hope Daniel will get to go sometime soon, too!

We are asking our family and friends to not buy gifts for us this year but to give the money they would have spent on us to the charity of thier choice or to give with us to Servant Partners. (Hey all you family members that we usually exchange gifts with--you will be getting a letter in the mail soon! :-)) Crossroads will be taking up a special Advent Conspiracy offering in Dec. and people will choose to give to one of 3 charities: Servant Partners, Living Water, International or the New York City Rescue Mission. Or they will give on thier own to the charity of thier choosing. I know one couple has decided to give to World Vision for hurricane relief.

The kids have also decided to participate this year, which is a huge character builder for them. (They are asking our extended family members to limit any gifts they buy them to only one gift costing no more than $20.) We let them decide to whom our family would give. Different choices that were brought up in our "Family Meeting" were: Living Water, Servant Partners, the Compassion Food Crisis fund and the Hands and Feet Project in Haiti (children's village) to clean up and rebuild after the hurricanes. It took a little while but the final decision was Servant Partners.

We desire to worship Jesus this Christmas in this way and share his love with the world. We also pray that through this the kids will learn what Christmas is really about and develop servant hearts. If you would like to participate with us and need some ideas for relational giving check out our church’s website: www.2crossroads.com. Click on the ‘Advent Conspiracy’ link on the left.
We are really excited to see what God does through this. How he changes us and the world this Christmas!
I will try to get some pictures of the boys up on here in the next few weeks. To see a really powerful video about advent conspiracy go to adventconspiracy.org (I wanted to put it on here but it's a file type that blogspot doesn't support :-()