Give Hope

Brent and I started a new Christmas tradition this year (well, I guess it can't be considered a 'tradition' yet. I should say we're planning to make this a Christmas tradition.)

Anyway, our church did a series recently called 'Give Hope.' The short version of the message is that God gave us hope through the birth of a baby. Our pastor encouraged us to be hope for someone this Christmas season. Brent and I talked about it and we decided we were going to try to find 30 ways to Give Hope throughout the month of December.

I have to say, although we did not start out with this intention- I think we gained just as much as a family as we were able to give. We genuinely enjoyed our acts of hope, and it provided a wonderful way for us to teach Mary Grace about the true reason for the season.

Two of my favorite things we did to Give Hope-

Mary Grace got to ring the bell for the Salvation Army

And secondly, Brent and I were able to help pack 1.1 million meals that were shipped to Haiti from a local church. There were literally hundreds of volunteers putting together meals. The meals were being immediately boxed and put onto trailers. As we finished the trailers pulled out of the church parking lot heading to the coast to be put on a ship. The meals are expected to clear customs shortly after the New Year and a team from the Church will immediately hop on a plane and distribute the meals. I can't even describe how cool it was to be part of something so amazing!

Besides the super cute picture of Mary Grace, the reason I blog about this new tradition is to encourage others to make this a part of your Christmas traditions. I can honestly say it was my favorite part of this Christmas season!