Income-generating Christmas Gifts Break the Cycle of Poverty

It’s Throwback Thursday! We’re going back to 2005 to a group meeting in Gospel for Asia’s old office in Carrollton, Texas, where people are discussing potential opportunities to help meet more needs on the field. A question is raised, “What if we made a catalog with high-impact gifts donors could give to families in Asia at Christmastime?”

The project was something new for the leaders at Gospel for Asia (GFA). Providing farm animals and sewing machines was so different from what the ministry was doing at the time—supporting and equipping national missionaries, educating underprivileged children, drilling water wells—but helping impoverished families in Jesus’ name truly complimented the ministry’s vision.

“The next year, we worked with the field with the idea of animals and other gifts,” said John, a Gospel for Asia (GFA) staff member since 1992. “It was exciting because it would give donors a whole new and completely different opportunity to minister to the poor while still sharing the love of Christ.”

In 2006, Gospel for Asia’s first Christmas Gift Catalog was printed. It’s aim? Encouraging believers in the West to celebrate Christmas by giving life-changing gifts to families in Asia that break the cycle of poverty and provide hope. As John says, “The gift of hope, I believe, is one of the greatest gifts we can give, as it comes directly from the Father.”

Gospel for Asia mailed out its first Christmas Gift Catalog in 2006! Here’s an array of the catalogs we’ve designed and mailed since then.

What People Thought of the Catalog

When the catalog started landing in mailboxes, Gospel for Asia (GFA) friends had the opportunity to give toward dozens of items, such as chickens, goats, water filters, rickshaws, winter clothing and church buildings.

“We were not totally sure what to expect, but our donors totally grabbed the vision and ran with it,” John recalls. “It was amazing to see the huge number of gifts that came in. We had to reorganize the work load just to manage it all.”

Heather, another Gospel for Asia (GFA) staff member, remembers the flood of donations received through the catalog.

“I didn’t anticipate such an overwhelming response! It was so exhilarating to watch the Body of Christ all come together for this endeavor. …

“That first year, I talked with someone who had given a Jesus Well. It was his first gift to the ministry, so I was curious how he’d heard about it. As it turned out, he was a postman and had been delivering catalogs all week. He was waiting for one to be undeliverable so he could look at it himself (standard procedure for catalogs and magazines), and when he finally got to see the inside of a catalog, he was so impacted that he responded by providing a well. I think that’s when I really realized this was something special.”

By God’s grace, the response to the catalog has continued to increase—with more than 1.7 million families in Asia receiving life-changing gifts over the years.


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