Poor you….with less pictures now some posts will have more words! I always love to hear ideas from other parents on things they do with their kids, so I thought I’d post a few of mine. First let me say I used to be a reader. Back in the days before kids I had favorite authors, favorite books, I would pour over one sentence dissecting the meaning. I have three boys. Chris had some ‘get to know you’ questions he was using for a meeting and one was “Who is your favorite author?” I asked him if Grace from the Design*Sponge counts. I no longer pour over books, instead I am pumped when Cottage Living arrives in the mailbox and I can find 5 minutes to fly through it. All that to say, my very favorite magazine arrives in November each year. It is the Samaritan’s Purse Christmas Catalog. This marks the beginning of Christmas for me. We are pretty active in social issues year round, but the Christmas Catalog is a highlight with the boys. I sat down with Corbett and Hudson to pick out what they wanted to “buy”. Hudson was a fan of milk, Corbett liked that he could help buy a house, stock a fish pond, buy chickens - he basically liked it all. What really stood out to him was a picture of a child with a dirty glass of water and a clean glass of water. Corbett’s FAVORITE drink is a warn glass of water. We talked about how some kids don’t have clean water and how we can help buy water filters and pumps to allow them to have clean water. The next Sunday my church played the following video - it is well worth your time to watch:
To bring it all home we now have a glass of dirty water sitting on our kitchen table. It reminds Corbett and Hudson to pray for those that don’t have clean water and it reminds us to give to enable them to enjoy a clean glass of water like we enjoy everyday…..
Every 21 seconds a child dies from a water related illness
If you are interested in giving to help provide clean water globally here are two organizations to consider (many more can be found online):
Gift Ideas:
1. Combine a contribution certificate with a cool water bottle as a stocking stuffer
2. Combine a contribution certificate with a new set of kitchen glasses. You can find cool old vintage ones at flea markets.
6 Comments
Sweet video. Did someone at TCABC do this!? Great message Ash, thanks for posting the link to the catalog. I have to say Hudson’s face cracks me up!
That is the best video I have seen! Thanks for posting it! Hope you don’t mind if I share it!
This is what we do with our kids. Instead of giving gifts to our families who have too much already we give gifts in honor of them. My dad works alot with Habitat for Humanity so we give there in honor of him. My sister-in-law does a lot with Uganda so we give to Invisible Children for her. Then we mostly choose things from World Vision Christmas Catalog. It is a way to show the love of God and teach the lesson that others are important to God. AND our families appreciate too because they see the value of it.
So I was wondering…the glass in front of Hudson that is empty….dirty or clean water?? =)
Samaritan’s purse does a great job. I love how you involve your boys in giving! You guys are great!
I saw this video a while back…so powerful!!! Our family loves Heifer International. This is where our gifts are going this year. Thank you for sharing all these wonderful ideas with us!