Alternative Christmas
O Come All Ye Faithful!
Join us in celebrating the upcoming Christmas season by sharing life-changing gifts that bring hope, love, peace, and joy! These are rare and precious gifts that we believe should be shared globally. With your Alternative Christmas gift-giving, you can honor or remember your loved ones AND make a difference in the lives of people around the world. When you give in honor of someone, we will mail a complimentary card to the person you designate to let them know of your gift. To ensure the card arrives by Christmas, please make your gift by Sunday, December 15. You also have the option of sending an e-card.
As a guide, below is a screenshot of our online giving page section that will allow you to name a person to honor or remember. Please ensure the box is checked, select the appropriate designation from the dropdown menu, and type in the name of the person you wish to honor or remember.
Browse the Life-changing Gifts Catalog below (or request printed copy at gifts@dom.disciples.org) for gift ideas that resonate with what is near and dear to you, your loved ones, or within your groups – including peace with justice, education, health, women’s empowerment, addressing climate change, vibrant churches, sending mission co-workers, or where needed most.
Celebrating the Pacific Conference of Churches
Looking for a specific partner to support with your alternative Christmas gift? This year, we are highlighting the Pacific Conference of Churches (PCC). The PCC works with congregations and denominations throughout the Pacific Islands. While the PCC has many initiatives within their work, one significant focus area is creation care. The PCC is leading the way in caring for climate refugees, educating on adaptive farming techniques, and working with local communities on sustainable agriculture. Alternative Christmas gifts for the PCC could support things like:
- Seeds
- Community education seminars
- Livestock
- Research initiatives
- Refugee care
Make a gift for the Pacific Conference of Churches today!
More information on the Pacific Conference of Churches can be found here
If you have any questions,
contact the Office of Resource Development at
317-713-2555
gifts@dom.disciples.org
Life-changing Gifts Catalog
Making a Gift to Honor a Loved One
Many enjoy giving a gift to honor, remember, or celebrate loved ones on special occasions. These gifts are wonderful for holidays, birthdays, ordination anniversaries, weddings, and more.
Whether your gift is undesignated, for the appointment of a mission co-worker, for the work of a specific partner or in a specific country, or for a theme highlighted in this catalog, any gift to Global Ministries can be shared in memory or in honor of someone near and dear to you!
For Example:
•One family made a gift for a family friend’s 100th birthday!
•Many families make gifts in memory of loved ones to celebrate their care for global mission.
•A pastor requested donations to support the Global Ministries Child and Elder Sponsorship program for her baby shower in lieu of gifts.
If you would prefer to send your gift by mail, you are welcome to download this order form and mail your gift to:
Global Ministries
Office of Resource Development
PO Box 1986
Indianapolis, IN 46206
Once you have made your gift, Global Ministries will send a card to share the news of your gift to the person, family, or congregation of your choosing.
All gifts to each programmatic theme are divided equally between the five area offices: Africa, East Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, Middle East and Europe, and Southern Asia. Area offices then send these funds to support partners and programs who are working to address the designated theme. As always, 100% of your gift is used as you designate, and nothing is taken out for administration or banking fees.
Where Needed Most
Your support of the work of Global Ministries is critical. General gifts enable the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the United Church of Christ to engage globally through relationships, visits, advocacy, and education. General support to Global Ministries provides an important pastoral presence with more than 290 global partners in 90 countries. Your gifts are a significant witness in walking with global partners in all parts of the world.
Unrestricted gifts help facilitate every relationship mentioned in this catalog. Whether through the sending and receiving of mission co-workers, planning pilgrimages to visit the ministries of partners, or amplifying partner voices for advocacy, action, and celebration, Global Ministries relies on gifts like yours to make these opportunities possible. With your support, new globally-focused curricula and opportunities for connection are created for children, youth, and adults. These resources offer ways for all to enjoy a fuller understanding of God’s mission in the world.
Addressing Climate Change
“At the Asian Rural Institute, I am learning new skills of environmental protection, fertilizer making, soil preparation, and food preservation. This knowledge will benefit our agricultural projects and fight malnutrition,” shares Sonny, a participant in the Asian Rural Institute training program. In Japan, the Asian Rural Institute (ARI) is training young leaders from rural communities around the world in sustainable agriculture practices for a world with a changing climate. Upon completion of the grassroots training program, participants return to their home communities to share what they learned and promote sustainable agriculture from within.
Efforts to care for creation by international partners continue to evolve with each natural disaster and shift in weather patterns. These efforts are combating the negative impacts of climate change by protecting and nurturing the natural world, preserving resources, and seeking to ensure food security.
To learn more about specific partner initiatives addressing climate change, click here.
• $30 could provide equipment for new climate adaptations for agricultural projects
• $60 could offer clean water through a water purification system
• $100 could contribute to the installation of solar panels in disaster-prone regions
Peace with Justice
Olive trees are known as an international symbol of peace. Gifts for Peace with Justice support projects such as the YWCA of Palestine and YMCA of East Jerusalem Keep Hope Alive! Olive Tree campaign. By replanting over 200,000 olive trees in Palestinian territories so far, Palestinians are affirmed in their efforts to keep hope alive and in their commitment to work constructively toward peace-building.
Working toward peace with justice means acknowledging the reality that true peace is more than the absence of conflict. Through Global Ministries, we join our voices with advocates around the world to promote opportunities to confront powers that deny the fullness of life and the integrity of creation by living out God’s radical love.
To learn more about specific partner initiatives providing peace with justice, click here.
• $20 could plant a tree in East Jerusalem
• $50 could provide one student the opportunity to learn about peace-building
• $100 could help host a family of migrants displaced from their home
Health
During the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, many partners stepped up to respond to this new priority in their communities.
Global Ministries partner, Popular Education in Health (EPES) in Santiago, Chile has been walking alongside of vulnerable families in Chile and promoting a more dignified life through grassroots health programs. When COVID-19 began to make a presence in Chile, EPES health promoters shared with parents and children on how to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in their communities. Also, EPES began a home garden project to promote healthy nutrition — an activity for families to participate in together during a time of physical distancing and a new way to incorporate new healthy foods into their meals.
In many places, medical treatment and access to preventative health information is seen as a luxury for the wealthy instead of a basic right for all. Global Ministries works closely with community health programs, nursing schools, and hospitals so that many might have better access to adequate healthcare.
To learn more about specific partner initiatives in health, click here.
• $10 could provide face masks and hygiene kits
• $50 could support life-saving medicines for ill patients
• $100 could assist in offering a nursing scholarship
Education
Following the passing of his mother, Jonah continued his education while living at the Family Village Farm and with the support of the Global Ministries Child Sponsorship program. A gifted student, Jonah not only completed his high school diploma, but he went on to study nursing at the Christian Medical College in Vellore, India. Today, he is a nurse at the Christian Medical College Hospital, a leading hospital in the country in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic in India.
International partners provide practical, affordable education through educational and vocational centers, after-school programs, and elementary and secondary schools. Global Ministries also accompanies partner colleges and universities, including scholarship support for students attending higher education.
To learn more about specific partner initiatives in education, click here.
• $30 could provide school supplies for young children
• $45 could support the presence of tutors at after-school programs
• $200 could furnish school desks for crowded classrooms
Women’s Empowerment
Empowering women and girls does more than secure a better income for families. When women are empowered, women are less likely to be abused, more likely to be educated, and more likely to have control over their health and reproductive choices.
By making soap, baking bread, and selling plantain flour through the training and support of the Community of Disciples of Christ in the Congo Microcredit project, Maria, became a first-time homeowner. Also, she is able to pay the school fees for her children’s education. Global Ministries works with partners around the world who are empowering women and girls through advocacy, education, and through income-generating programs.
To learn more about specific partner initiatives to empower women and girls, click here.
• $30 could assist young women attending school
• $50 could support one woman to participate in a microcredit program
• $75 could promote gender equality through creating community resources
Vibrant Churches
In many communities around the world, the church is growing and vibrant! Young adults, such as Ahmad, who are active in local churches across Syria are learning how to prepare lessons and to provide spiritual and emotional support for children through the Sunday School Training Project of the Fellowship for Middle Eastern Evangelical Churches. Through this training program and the continued community support of other young adult Sunday School teachers, Ahmad is now passionate about serving the church and he plans to attend seminary and to become a pastor. Also, a new and growing children’s ministry is a vibrant space of hope and healing for children at his local church.
Through congregations, seminaries, and church leadership programs, international partners help to share the good news of God’s abundant life with all people. At the same time, partner churches seek to develop a vision and mission for their congregations that is faithful both to their lives and to the Gospel.
To learn more about specific ways partner churches around the world are growing and vibrant, click here.
• $15 could provide Sunday school materials for a church
• $40 could provide textbooks for a theological student
• $150 could assist in the transportation of pastoral visits to rural congregations
Sending and receiving Mission Co-workers
“We are called into partnership. We are called not to toil alone but into relationship with God, and by design, with each other. We are called to walk in mutual solidarity and companionship with one another through all of life’s journey together,” shares Rachel Pellett, Mission Co-Worker to Jamaica.
At the Pringle Home, where Rachel serves in Jamaica, girls between the ages of 8 and 17, who have experienced varying forms of abuse, trauma, or neglect, receive a safe, loving, and nurturing home environment where hurts can heal, hope is restored, and faith is developed. In one journaling exercise, Rachel shares how the girls were asked “If you had a million dollars, how would you spend it?” One girl responded, “I would give all of it to the children and staff in all the homes I have lived in since I was seven years old. I would want every girl like me to know that I still remember them, and there is a reason to have hope.”
The sending of mission co-workers fosters deep relationships with international partners. Upon their return, the witness of mission co-workers in churches in the United States and Canada builds new and strengthens existing connections between ministries around the world and local churches like yours. The appointment of Global Ministries mission co-workers is one example of how the Core Value of Mutuality: to walk in hope with others in God’s mission is lived out.
To learn more about current mission co-workers, click here.
Questions?
If you have any questions or if you would like printed materials mailed to you, please contact the Office of Resource Development by calling 317-713-2555 or by emailing gifts@dom.disciples.org.