A benefit for Blessed Arrows

Please consider supporting this ministry - details in the letter below.
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Christmas Nativity Tradition
Hello! I want to let you know about a fundraiser we're working on to help support our favorite ministry - Blessed Arrows - which helps fund reversals of vasectomies and tubal ligations - and to bless many families (hopefully yours!) in the process.

We have a very special Christmas tradition which we've done for the past 13 years and it gets better every year ;-) I've been trying to share this wonderful tradition with other Christian families because it's such a blessing and really puts the focus on Christ during the Christmas season. I wanted to send this out early so you all would have time to start a Nativity Tradition with your own families this year.

Early in December, we purchase a nativity set, including a stable. We get some small (shoebox size) boxes and then package each piece of the nativity individually for mailing. On the outside of each package, we tape an envelope which contains a devotion and song related to that particular piece of the nativity. For example, with the package that contains the first Wiseman, we might include a devotion that tells the significance of the three gifts; gold,
frankincense, and myrrh, along with the carol, We Three Kings of Orient Are. We also cut the front cover off of old Christmas cards (such as a picture of the Wisemen) and include that in the envelope along with any other related item such as a bookmark, coloring pages of the Wisemen, crafts, recipes, etc. Instead of packaging the baby Jesus for mailing, we wrap that box with Christmas wrap and decorate it with bows and ribbons, we also include in the envelope a special Christmas card which we sign.
We prayerfully choose another family that we know -- not well enough, though, that we might see them too often and provide an opportunity
for our children to accidentally let the "secret" out to one of their children. We choose a family whom we would like to encourage or for whom we have been praying for. We then begin mailing out the packages one per day (we get all of the packages stamped at once at the post office, then bring them home to mail in our own mailbox). We do not put a return address on the packages -- however, due to recent terrorism concerns, we have the children decorate the outside of the boxes with stickers, crayons, markers, etc. to make sure the packages look Christmassy & "friendly" - not suspicious. We first mail out
the stable, then the donkey, cow, sheep, shepherds (one per day, of course), Wisemen, Joseph, and finally, Mary -- scheduled to arrive in their mailbox on Dec. 24th.

Beginning on the day that the other family will receive the first package, our family starts bringing out our own nativity set -- one piece per day. We allow the children to sip hot chocolate, or Christmas tea (instant tea, lemonade mix, orange drink mix, cinnamon, cloves and sugar) and eat popcorn during these times. We have a lot of candles for our Christmas decorations and we light them (taking care, of course, with all our little ones) and have our devotions by
candlelight. This creates an atmosphere in which the children are respectful and captivated with the devotions. We then sing the carol and read the devotions that we sent to the other family (we keep copies for ourselves). Since we try to choose a family with children close in age to our own, we then assign each child to pray for the corresponding child in the other family and Warren & I pray for the parents.
On Christmas Day, we bundle everyone up and deliver the baby Jesus personally -- caroling as we go! The receiving family is always so surprised to learn who's been sending these packages and we always enjoy this special time. So far, every family we've done this with (this will be our 13th year) has told us that their Christmas was the most memorable and blessed,
Christ-centered Christmas because of receiving the daily reminder of the true meaning of Christmas.

After sharing about this tradition I had quite a few requests for more information from others who were interested in starting a similar tradition for their own families ... so, this year I've set up a webpage to make our "Nativity Tradition Packets" available which contain everything you need to begin your own tradition this year - excluding the Nativity set.

If you have any questions, please email me : vyckieb at conpoint dot com. I pray that many families will be blessed by this very special tradition this Christmas!

Please note: This is a fundraiser: ALL PROCEEDS from the Christmas Nativity Packets will go to support the Blessed Arrows Reversal Ministry .

God bless!

Vyckie
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