A CHRISTMAS GIFT FOR JESUS
by Dale Bass
Oh, how we love to see the joy and excitement on children’s faces when they open their gifts on Christmas morning. How it warms our hearts with feelings of compassion and love toward them. Just think how great it would be to send Jesus a gift at Christmas!
I remember in years past how we saved our pennies, nickels, and dimes and put them into a special 13th Sabbath mission offering can to bring to church. Recently, when I learned about Florida Conference’s plan to support Bible workers in China, I thought, “Why couldn’t my church give the gift of a Bible missionary to China as their offering to Jesus for Christmas?”
Adia Myles, our Midport Church Sabbath School mission leader, joined me in setting a goal of raising $1,500 to support a Bible worker in China for an entire year. By our calculations, we only needed to raise eight cents a day per member to reach our goal. What better place to invest our efforts and money than on a Bible worker who would tell the story of Baby Jesus who grew up and taught about the love of His father and then was crucified so that each one of us could be saved and live with Him forever?
The children of our church were challenged to clean out a peanut butter jar and use it as a 13th Sabbath offering container to hold their gift for Jesus. Labels for the jars were printed with the words China Missionary Project. Sixty-five families became involved in the program, and the children began bringing in their pennies week after week. When the pennies were counted, the children had raised more than $300.
After Thanksgiving, a Christmas tree adorned with stockings received the adults’ presents to Baby Jesus. The gifts in the stockings on the tree amounted to more than $1,000. A heart-warming appeal from the pulpit brought the total to a few dollars more than the original goal of $1,500, giving us a jump start on next year’s gift to support another Bible worker in China.