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There are many important causes vying for our attention. And there’s no shortage of people who care! You have causes that you’re passionate about, and so do your friends and family!
How can you make the causes that you and those around you care about part of your gift-giving this Christmas?
Here are three ideas, organized by cause, for Christmas gifts you can pair with a Gift of Compassion for the justice seekers in your life.
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Environmental Sustainability
Photo by Benjamin Combs
Did you know that growing your own food is one huge way to steward the environment? When you give the gift of drought-resistant vegetable seeds, you are providing a family living in poverty with a sustainable source of income while also combatting food insecurity.
Top off this gift with with a reusable travel mug or some reusable metal straws so that the environmentalist in your life can raise their travel mug of hot chocolate in celebration of sustainability this Christmas season.
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Girls’ Rights
Photo by Arièle Bonte
Sadly, many girls around the world still face injustice, discrimination and inequality simply because they are girls. When you give the gift of sewing workshops, you are providing young women across the globe with a powerful tool to overcome inequality and discrimination, while empowering them with an income generating skill.
Pair this Gift of Compassion with a creative workshop that you and your loved one can attend together—like a local sewing class!
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Migration
Photo by jwlez
According to UNHCR, “There has been an 8,000 per cent increase in the number of Venezuelans seeking refugee status worldwide since 2014, principally in the Americas.” Migration crises are an issue of our times. Many Christians around the world have been compelled to respond with compassion and care—like Compassion’s church partners in Colombia, a country that borders Venezuela.
When you give the gift of emergency survival kits, you are helping Venezuelan migrant families find safe shelter and their basic needs for relief and recovery.
Moving to a new country is an incredibly disorienting experience. An important and beautiful way that people begin to feel rooted in their new home is through serving food from their country of origin to their new neighbours.
Pair this Gift of Compassion with a meal out at a local restaurant owned by newcomers to your community who are serving food from their home. We hope this new culinary experience is an enriching one for both you and your new neighbours!
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We’re in a season of celebrating the birth of King Jesus, whose peaceful rule, the Bible tells us, is about justice (see Isaiah 9:7). Christmas is a celebration of the peace and justice that Jesus brings to us—and an invitation to Jesus followers to continue bringing that peace and justice on earth as it is in heaven.
