The Faces of My Best Gift - Part 3

This Sunday, December 16th, we will be receiving our My Best Gift Christmas Offering at Timber Ridge Church. This weekend, at both of our worship services, we have the opportunity to give our very best gift to Jesus this Christmas by receiving a special offering that is directed to impacting our community, state, and world.  100% of the funds received from our Christmas Offering will go to support the following 3 projects:

• School adoption & global work in Vietnam
• Church Planting in Marshall, TX and Toronto, Canada
• Helping hurting families locally by meeting physical needs

For the past few days I've been sharing the faces that will be impacted by our generosity. You can read Part 1 here and catch Part 2 here.  Today, I'm wrapping up this series of posts by sharing with you one last set of faces that will be directly impacted by our giving to the Christmas Offering at Timber Ridge.

These are the faces of the children of Sapa, Vietnam. I personally took this picture back in October while on a Vision trip to see how our church could go serve in a difficult place and make an impact in Vietnam. We have a very unique opportunity to make a long term impact by adopting a school in the Sapa area of Vietnam. It's a beautiful, but rural area of Vietnam that has great need. By adopting a school, we'll be able to help children just like these. We'll be able to make sure they have enough food to eat. We'll be able to make sure they have clean water to drink. We'll be able to make sure they have safe & usable facilities. Our generosity will literally impact the world.

Back in Matthew 25, I remember Jesus saying something about when we feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, clothe the naked, and care for the sick and poor, we are actually serving Him. We have an incredible opportunity before us in Vietnam to make a great impact in our world.

If you attend Timber Ridge Church, I hope you'll join me in praying for and giving toward our My Best Gift Christmas Offering this Sunday. Together, we can make a great impact by generously giving our very best to Jesus this Christmas.

The Faces of My Best Gift - Part 2

Sunday, December 16th is a big day in the life of Timber Ridge Church and it's rapidly approaching! It's the day that we will be receiving our My Best Gift Christmas Offering at Timber Ridge Church. On Sunday, December 16th, we'll give our very best gift to Jesus this Christmas by receiving a special offering that is directed to impacting our community, state, and world.  100% of the funds received from our Christmas Offering will go to support the following 3 projects:

• School adoption & global work in Vietnam
• Church Planting in Marshall, TX and Toronto, Canada
• Helping hurting families locally by meeting physical needs

I wanted to share with all my Timber Ridge family and other friends the faces of our My Best Gift offering. These are the people who are directly impacted by our generosity and giving. 

You can read about the first two church plants we'll be supporting HERE.

But today, I want to share with you another face of My Best Gift:

This is Kitsy Tuck (She's the tall one). If you attend Timber Ridge Church regularly, then you probably recognize Kitsy. She's a partner at Timber Ridge & she's been plugged in, faithfully serving and making a difference, since the beginning of our church. You may recognize her from helping with community events, being involved in our college group, or serving each week with our toddlers and younger children. Kitsy is graduating from TSU this semester with a degree in special education. She'll be heading to Vietnam in February to use her degree, her experience, and her love for kids to serve others and impact her world. She'll be teaching special education methods to teachers at Hanoi University, as well as working with orphans and school children in Hanoi. Kitsy is spending 4 months in Vietnam and is fundraising the entire costs of this opportunity to go and serve the world.

A portion of our My Best Gift offering will go to help Kitsy as she serves special education teachers and children in Hanoi. It's an incredible opportunity we get to support and send one of our very own Timber Ridgers! 

I'm pumped about this opportunity to send one of our very own and I hope you'll generously consider being a part of sending Kitsy to make a difference on the other side of our globe!

The Faces of My Best Gift - Part 1

In just a matter of days, we will be receiving our My Best Gift Christmas Offering at Timber Ridge Church. On December 16th, we'll give our very best gift to Jesus this Christmas by receiving a special offering that is directed to impacting our community, state, and world.  100% of the funds received from our Christmas Offering will go to support the following 3 projects:

• School adoption & global work in Vietnam
• Church Planting in Marshall, TX and Toronto, Canada
• Helping hurting families locally by meeting physical needs

Over the next few days, I want to share with you the faces of our My Best Gift Offering by introducing you to some of the people we will support.  Today I'd like to introduce you to two families.

Meet Daniel Yang & his beautiful family.  Daniel is a church planter who is moving to Toronto in January to start a brand new church there. Toronto is Canada's largest city, where 1 million residents are either Muslim, Hindu, Buddhists, Jewish, Sikh, or unchurched.  The opportunity for impact through church planting in this city is immense!  (If you attend Timber Ridge, you may recognize Daniel & his family as they were with us one Sunday while I was in Vietnam back in October.)

Meet James Cotten & his lovely family. James is currently planting The Heights Church in Marshall, TX, which just launched one month ago. 25% of people in Marshall live below the poverty level and it is a city with strong racial tension. There is a great need for a church to minister to people regardless of race and economic status and that's the heart of James & The Heights Church.

Two unique stories. Two unique families. Two unique callings.  And two unique faces of our My Best Gift Christmas Offering.  If you attend Timber Ridge, I hope you're prayerfully considering how God can use your generosity to make an impact in Toronto, in Marshall, and around the world!

8 Ways To Teach Your Kids The Real Meaning Of Christmas

1. Start a family tradition of reading the Christmas story together. The story of Jesus birth can be found in Luke 2 and reading this story together as a family is a great way to make sure you’re focused on the true meaning of Christmas.

2. Involve the entire family in setting up the Nativity Scene. You could even do this while reading the Christmas story as a family. And if you’re worried that your children are too young to handle your antique Nativity set passed down from generation to generation, you can find kid friendly nativity sets at your local Christian bookstore and in many toy sections of department stores. Fisher Price even makes one that can be found here.

3. Attend a Christmas worship service together. Christmas is a time when we should focus our minds attention and our hearts affection on Jesus. Don’t let the busy-ness of the season rob your family of spending quality time worshipping together. And if you life in or near Stephenville, I would be honored to have you and your family join us for our Christmas Services at Timber Ridge Church on Sunday, Dec. 23rd.

4. Play Christmas music in your home that focuses on the reason for the season. Sure, Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer is musical genius. And I personally know every word to that song.  But be sure to include Christmas music in your home that communicates God’s gift to us in his son Jesus.

5. Give to others. If you know a family or child in need this Christmas, adopt them and shop for them as a family for Christmas. If you don’t know anyone personally who might be in need this year, then check out your local Angel Tree, or something like it, and adopt a child for your family to provide for. If you are a partner at Timber Ridge or we are the church where you regularly attend, I encourage you to be a part of the My Best Gift Christmas Offering and involve your children in that process as well.

6. Adopt a new strategy for giving your kids gifts. Nothing sends more mixed signals to our kids than when we say Christmas is about Jesus, but then turn around and make it about how many presents they can get and how much we can go in debt doing it. Come up with a better plan as parents to use even your gift giving as a way to teach your kids the real reason for the season. A strategy that we use in our home is to give our son four gifts: “Something you want, Something you need, Something to wear, and Something to read.” Love it.

7. Visit your local nursing home or an elderly neighbor who is shut-in or might not have family close by. Take some cookies or a basket of fruit and give the gift of your time and presence to someone who might be alone this season. Christmas is all about God making himself present among us through his son, Jesus. As a family, practice presence this holiday season by being present in the life of someone who may be overlooked by others.

8. As a family, make gifts and cards for friends and other family members. What better way to promote giving, family, and togetherness than to make gifts and cards for your friends and family. You’ll save money, your gifts will mean more because they’re from the heart, and your family will grow from the time spent together.

Regardless of how you choose to teach your children and teens about the true meaning of Christmas, be sure that you at least do it. Don't be reactive in teaching you're kids what Christmas is all about. Be intentional. Be proactive. Use this incredible opportunity to let your kids see God's message of hope: that He loved us so much, He sent his son Jesus. That's what Christmas is all about. And as parents, it's our responsibility to make sure our kids know the real reason for the season.