Delivering food, shelter, and hope to the poorest of the poor
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Cross Catholic Outreach
- December 22, 2009
The Most Precious Gift
Every year the U.S. Census Bureau collects data on the nation’s Christmas spending habits. A few of this year’s stats:
$16.6 billion
Number of cards, letters, and packages the U.S. Postal Service will deliver between Dec. 1 and Christmas this year.
$4.3 billion
The value of U.S. toy imports from China between January and August 2009 to stock stores for Christmas.
$28.2 billion
Retail sales by the nation’s department stores last December.
With all that gift-giving going on, it’s easy to see why people so often get caught up in the material rush associated with Christmas these days. Of course, we know the true meaning of Christmas is Christ’s birth — God’s perfect gift sent to us to save the world from sin.
In commemoration of that most precious gift we received from God, we can use Christmas as an opportunity to offer gifts to those in need. Something as simple as shipping food or clothing to a family in need using our Christmas catalog, www.GiftsThatGlorify.org, can have a huge impact on a poor family.
The following success stories, both the results of a shipment Cross Catholic sent to Haiti earlier this year, are an example of how a little generosity goes a long way toward helping the poor.
Pierre Franz, 10, had been praying for a bike for days so he could ride instead of walk the long distance to school each day. God answered his prayer through a container shipped by Cross Catholic this year! One of the men loading the shipment in Miami felt compelled to include his son’s new bike, unbeknownst to anyone at our organization. As some of our staff was unloading the shipment, they came across the new bike. At that time the director of Morningstar Ministries, a boys’ orphanage where Pierre lived, was there and explained the boy’s prayers for a bike. The next day he returned with Pierre, who was overjoyed when they wheeled out the bike from the shipment. He excitedly jumped on it and began to ride around.
Lemese Pierre, 7, was lying on the hard floor burning up with fever. She and the 124 other children living at Good Samaritan orphanage had been staying for months in a temporary shelter, a rickety open-air dance hall. Their orphanage had been destroyed during the turbulent 2008 hurricane season, and the staff was struggling to meet the children’s basic needs. They lacked a steady supply of food, clean clothes, medicine, and blankets. Our shipment provided them with canned food, clothes, bed quilts, and over-the-counter medicines such as Tylenol and cough syrup. Lemese was immediately given some of the Tylenol from the shipment and her fever went down. In a few hours, she even felt well enough to pose for this photo.
You can bless children like these by helping ship much-needed supplies to the poor who need them most. Visit our Christmas catalog, www.GiftsThatGlorify.org, to find out more.
