2007 Letter - Consider Christmas Part 3

This is the 3rd post in this Consider Christmas series. There's at least one more, maybe two to go on this topic. Go down a bit or click here and start at the beginning if you're just tuning in.


Below is the letter that we sent to our close family last year. Since this was so involved and we knew it would take time to plan, we sent it out pretty early - in October. We sent it out on nice green linen paper with a few Christmas designs on it and we all signed each one.

Like Tommy said in Part 2, we're not trying to "toot our own horn", although he didn't quite say it that way. I think he used a more intellectual term. :) We've been asked about how we did this so we thought putting it out here would be the best way to explain it.

October 2007

Well, Merry Christmas Family! Yes, this is a bit early but we figure the stores are getting ready so we should get a jump on things as well. We are planning something for this Christmas that we wanted to make you aware of as soon as possible. Mostly because we’re really excited about it but also because it will affect the gifts we will be giving. We also thought that it might influence the way you decide to spend, purchase and give your gifts this year.

Over the past year+, several experiences have raised our awareness of our desire to purchase and consume when the simple need for clean water in Africa and other countries is so critical. We have so much while people around the world are dying from malnutrition and disease due to the lack of clean drinking water. Tori will be going on a mission trip to Kenya in July 2008 to help build water wells. Jakeb, Tori and Andrea have been involved with our Student Ministry’s water project called H2O4K (water for Kenya) and we as a family have decided to make this need a focus for our Christmas giving this year. Christ, and His birth will remain our main focus, of course. We feel, though, that by taking some of the excessive consumerism we typically participate in out of this year’s festivities and focusing on real giving (giving water, giving life) that we can make a real difference. We think we can do this while still enjoying our favorite traditions and the good feelings we get when we share gifts. …more about this later in the letter.

To make a long story not quite so long… We have committed as a family to give a set dollar amount to an organization called Living Water International. You can check out this organization at www.water.cc.

What we’ve chosen to do this Christmas comes from an idea we’ve been following called “Advent Conspiracy”, www.adventconspiracy.org. This idea encourages us to “worship more, spend less, give more and love all”. The statement at the top of their website is, “Advent Conspiracy is an international movement restoring the scandal of Christmas by substituting compassion for consumption.”

Since the bulk of what we normally spend on Christmas will be given to providing water, we will be spending less on gifts so we can give more and in turn love all as a part of our worship for Christ who did the same thing for us. This simply means that instead of giving a toaster to those on our Christmas list, we’ll give something that costs little or nothing but is given from the heart with the one we’re giving to specifically in mind. Who knows, these gifts may even be better than some of the stuff we’ve given in the past.

We are not trying to change what you do for Christmas. The traditions we all love, giving gifts, enjoying family time and celebrating, are all part of God’s design for celebration. We believe this! For this year, and maybe just for this year, we have felt convicted to do things differently. We know that this may be a little “out there”. We’d love for you to understand that this is not something we’re forcing our kids to do. In fact, they were involved in making the decision to do this from the start. We think that through the process of creative planning, the gifts we give will be a lot of fun. We also have special things planned for our Christmas morning that might just make it the most memorable Christmas we’ve ever had. We are excited about doing this as a family!

Are we canceling Christmas? No. Will we still have a Christmas tree? Emphatically, YES! This was one of the mandates from all three kids! :) Will we eliminate all excess in our celebrations? Probably not. Will we judge others for how they choose to celebrate Christmas? Absolutely not. We all enjoy giving and receiving gifts. We’d like to ask you, though, to consider this when you plan your Christmas shopping trip - spend less, or none at all, on the gift you would give to us and give either all cash or a small gift and the rest in cash. Should you decide to “spend less and give more”, we’ll add your money to ours and it will all go to Living Water International.

This may all sound a little forward but we’ve always been told that it never hurts to ask and we really believe in this project and want to make a difference. We know we can’t fix the problem, we just want to help. Each time you take a drink of clean water from the sink in your kitchen that is only steps away, first, be thankful. And second, be thoughtful of how you might join us in this effort. We are looking forward to spending this holiday season with you!

Merry MasCHRIST!! Merry CHRISTmore!! Merry Christmas!!