Advent Conspiracy

This video may change your whole perspective on Christmas.

 

This video was made a few years ago to promote what they are calling an "Advent Conspiracy" which aims to get back to the true focus of Christmas - Jesus Christ and what he did for us - by focusing not on buying presents, but on four tenets:

1) Worship Fully

2) Spend Less

3) Give More

4) Love All

 

 If you're having trouble getting the video to play, try putting it in full-screen mode.
 

See the previous post for some ideas of ways to "Give More" this season that will spread your dollars to people in need.  (The last day to order Coffee and Chocolate is Sunday, Nov. 23.)

 

Let's "Worship Fully" this season.  Join us for the following;

• Sunday, November 30 at 10am - Advent wreath-making and story-telling.  Come and make an Advent wreath with your family that you can take home and use for family devotions during the season of Advent.  We'll also be giving out Advent Calendars!
• Wednesday, December 3 at 5:30pm - a contemplative, candlelight evening prayer service
• Wednesday, December 10 at 5:30pm - an evening prayer service with Christmas songs and the Grubb Family musicians

Ways to Give this Season

Don't know what to get certain people on your list?

Looking to do something meaningful with your money?

Want to share with others with thanksgiving for what God has done for you?

 

 

Here are three ways to give:

 

 

Coffee, Chocolate, Tea and Cocoa!

1 gift that gives in 3 ways

 

 

Lutheran World Relief partners with Equal Exchange - a cooperative in Massachusetts - which sells fairly traded goods, taking out some of the middlemen to give farmers a livable wage for their work and ensures their practices are environmentally sound. 

 

 

Your purchase of fairly traded coffee and chocolate (and more!) provides:

1.) Delicious coffee and chocolate for you or a person on your gift list

2.) a livable wage for the farmers that grow the beans

3.) access to clean water, health clinics and schools for farmers and their families (when you purchase through LWR, 20 cents goes to LWR Small Farmer Fund, which helps with these services)

 

Click here to learn more.

Click here to start shopping.

Or - to get free shipping and a discounted bulk rate - see the sign-up sheet in the narthex!

 

 

Ebola Outbreak Response

 

Troubled by the news about the Ebola outbreak?  Our partners in ministry at Lutheran Disaster Response are responding to the needs, which includes food.  As people are quarantined, there is no one to harvest the crops, and food shipments have slowed down, for fear of spreading the disease.

 

“We need food,” says the Rev. D. Jensen Seyenkulo, bishop of the Lutheran Church in Liberia. “There is a saying now: ‘If we don’t die of Ebola, we will die of starvation.’”

 

100% of your gifts assist those directly impacted by this crisis.

Consider giving in honor of someone.

 

Click here to learn more.

Click here to give online.

 

 

ELCA Good Gifts

 

You may be familiar with Heifer International - the program in which you can donate livestock to people in need.  Did you know the ELCA has a similar program?  It's called God's Global Barnyard, and it's part of ELCA Good Gifts.  Through this program, you can purchase a pig, goat, chick, honey bees, clean water, vaccinations, mosquito net, fruit tree seedling, survival kit, pantry items, or a whole host of other items for a family in need.

 

Click here to learn more and browse the online catalog.

Or check out our ELCA Good Gifts catalogs in the narthex!

When you make a purchase, you can choose to have a card sent to the person in whose honor you are making the donation.

 

During this season of thankfulness, let's consider making our gifts go farther by helping our neighbors in need.