How to Sponsor a Family for Christmas: Gifts that Last for a Lifetime

The holidays have long been considered the time of year to reflect on what we are grateful for, like the abundance and goodness we experience. Often, families choose this time to designate funds for charity to give back a portion of what they have received. Many may be wondering how to sponsor a family for Christmas. There are many ways to express your family’s thankfulness during the holidays, a thankfulness that is most keenly felt during the Christmas season as we celebrate the miracle of Jesus’ birth.

Sponsoring a family for Christmas is a great way to express such thankfulness. Donating so that a family in need receives a gift that will change their life can be a highlight of your holiday that brings true joy. And there is a great need in the world today for people like you and your family to join organizations that care for those who are consistently vulnerable and in need.

The International Monetary Fund monitors global financial conditions, looking for patterns and shared effects from the things that touch all our lives. Last year, the IMF reported, “Global economic activity is experiencing a broad-based and sharper-than-expected slowdown, with inflation higher than seen in several decades.”[1]

The World Bank reported early in 2023 that “Roughly 60% of the world’s extreme poor in 2019 lived in Sub-Saharan Africa alone, while 81% of the global poor… lived in Sub-Saharan Africa or South Asia.”[2] These numbers are on the rise. The multiplied effects mentioned earlier are driving more families into poverty. One of the sticking points of poverty is the inability to increase your income, and for many reasons, the opportunities to earn money are limited for those in poverty.

When inflation is high, it makes this worse. As the IMF stated, “Increasing price pressures remain the most immediate threat to current and future prosperity by squeezing real incomes and undermining macroeconomic stability.”[3] In other words, the economic opportunities that exist are being skewed because of inflation. A currency’s “dollar” just cannot go as far.

Families need extra ways to bring in income to offset rising expenses and to help make ends meet. Creativity and a long view of life are needed to provide solutions that benefit a family for months, if not years, to come.

Sitara was one who understood the mounting pressures of poverty. “Twenty years ago, my husband became mentally ill and could not work. Then my oldest son died. My younger son went to work to provide for the family. He died suddenly three years ago … I had no idea what to do,” Sitara shared.[4]

Her situation is all too common in places where poverty has a firm grip. Families like Sitara’s are living on the edge, and one hard blow can decimate their finances. There is no margin for repeated disasters like the ones Sitara experienced.

This is where GFA World knows how to love these families well. Through our Christmas Gift Catalog, a pair of goats was provided to Sitara’s family. Goats can produce milk and cheese for nourishment as well as for selling. They can also have kids, which is the beginning of a profitable livestock farm.

Sitara said, “When I received the goats, I jumped with joy. I shared with all my neighbors … I went and told them that I received goats. I’m so delighted because I have a means to earn [a living].”


Click here, to read more about this article.

Click here, to read more blogs in Gospel for Asia.Net

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Our Attitude Towards Suffering

Image
In 2 Timothy 2:3, the Apostle Paul writes to Timothy, “Join with me in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.” Everyone, at some point or another, faces suffering, the soldier especially. However, it is not so much what we suffer, but how we suffer that matters. The way our heart responds to suffering is crucial, because by it we will either advance or become stagnant. To suffer like a good soldier is to willingly endure all for the sake of the call. To suffer like a bad soldier is to grumble when difficult situations and hardship arise. Instead of throwing our lives into what God has called us to, we can try to hold on to our lives, wanting to get away with as little suffering as possible, paying as little price as possible. We have forgotten that we are under the orders of our Master and that we willingly gave up our lives. Christ’s Example of Suffering Christ lived with the expectation of suffering. Throughout the Gospels, He repeatedly referred to ...
Read more

What Is the Poverty Cycle?

Image
The question, “What is the poverty cycle, or cycle of poverty?” is one that must be answered to address and end poverty across the globe. Put simply, the term refers to the trend where the vicious effects of poverty and deprivation pass from one generation to the next, with no seeming way out. [1] Someone born into poverty has fewer opportunities than their wealthier peers. They must focus on survival above all, leaving little room for anything else. One illness can wipe out a family’s savings, but the unclean water sources and lack of protection available to them invite sickness. Walking to retrieve water can be time-consuming yet must be a daily priority, and many children must work alongside their parents for the family to afford food. Thus, school is often a far-off dream. Having had few opportunities to acquire skills, the kids grow up to repeat the cycle of poverty with their own children. This story was all too familiar for Nalah. His father worked in the tea fields, trying to e...
Read more

Where Can I Learn How to Break the Cycle of Poverty?

Image
There are many methods for how to break the cycle of poverty which one can learn about. From education assistance to income-generating gifts like sewing machines or farm animals, there is hope for families who have been poor for generations. GFA World works in communities in all these ways through sponsorships and gift distributions, and one by one, we see lives changed as families escape poverty. Raina’s life had been dominated by poverty. She was part of a highly underprivileged people group that faced discrimination and deprivation from others in the region. Despite that, Raina had been able to attend school up until tenth grade, but she discontinued her education when it became too much for her parents to afford. Rather than receiving her certificates of completion, she had to join her parents in the field to earn money to put food on the table. After she married Ander, Raina continued to work in the fields to supplement his income with her own. In search of better job opportunitie...
Read more