Christmas Shopping.

I guess it's too late for most people to get involved now this year, but I just wanted to highlight the Operation Christmas Child programme that is run every year by Samaritan's Purse. I used to wonder how much good it really is to give trinkets to children who don't have food, but that changed somewhat when I met a man from South Africa. He explained to a group of us that he was a teenager before he ever received a gift, and that receiving a gift meant that someone loved you. It's easy to think of gift-giving as an obligation (as it so often becomes), but it's not that to these children. No one is obligated to give to them, their own parents can't afford to even if they want to. If spending £15 filling a shoe box means that one child will catch a glimpse of the fact that someone somewhere loves them (because their Heavenly Father does) then yes, I think it's money very well spent.

The videos make me tear up - every single time.