TODAY IN MISSION YEARBOOK
Minute for Mission: Christmas Joy Offering
Isaiah 40
Where have you seen hope recently?
We see hope in the faces of each of us gathered here in worship. We feel hope through signs of mercy and grace shown to those in our communities during this busy season. We show hope through acts of loving kindness. We know of hope in the face of a child or an elder whom we love and trust. We trust in the hope of the Christ Child, for whom we prepare a way so he can prepare a way for us to know the fullness of God’s love.
There is hope all around us while we wait during this season of Advent.
Every year, the Christmas Joy Offering combines thousands of congregations’ gifts to bring hope through education and emergency assistance.
Three Presbyterian-related schools that equip communities of color — Menaul School in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Presbyterian Pan American School in Kingsville, Texas, and Stillman College in Tuscaloosa, Alabama — provide a transformative education for students all around the globe. These jewels in the Presbyterian crown prepare the way for students from every walk of life to be active, compassionate and informed citizens of the world. Beyond their schoolwork, these students live together in a supportive intentional community where they prepare the way for one another through acts of generosity, mission and service. In their lives together, students experience the love of Christ that we all meet anew at Christmas.
Like the schools and colleges that equip communities of color, the Assistance Program of the Board of Pensions prepares a way of peace and flourishing for church workers in times of financial crisis. This program provides life-giving and critical assistance in the most tender moments of church workers’ lives, like health or housing instability. The prophet Isaiah tells us that God is a bringer of comfort as we make the paths straight by offering food to the hungry and satisfying the needs of the afflicted. Jesus, the Light of the World, brings hope, so we can do just that through our receipt of the Christmas Joy Offering to support this vital assistance program.
Our support of the Christmas Joy Offering makes this preparation possible. These gifts ensure that every person — whether they be a high schooler, college student or church worker — has the tools they need to flourish. Your gifts prepare the way for the God we know in Jesus Christ, the child whose birth we will celebrate soon.
Special Offerings
Let us join in prayer for:
Andrew Browne, Executive Vice President, Board of Pensions
Vernon Broyles, Volunteer, Office of the General Assembly
Let us pray:
O God, may that little child born in the manger show us your ways of peace this day and every day as we prepare the way for his reign in our world once more. In his name, we pray. Amen.