In my last article I told you about our desire to give a doll to Maria and toys to 2499 other needy children here in Chiapas during this Christmas season.
I repent.
I can’t in good conscious give Maria a doll for Christmas.
You see, I just got back from a trip to some of the Indian communities. I noticed something that has always caught my attention but really stuck out to me this time.
Many children don’t have shoes.
Since it’s cold, rainy and muddy in many of these Indian villages this really impacted me.
In my last newsletter I wrote ““Your Gift Will Put a Doll in Maria’s Arms and a Smile on 2499 More Hopeful Children’s Faces this Christmas”.
How can we put a doll in Maria’s hands when she really needs shoes on her feet?
Many Indian families have several children and simply cant afford to purchase shoes for all of them.
When I asked the Indian leaders what they thought of the idea of purchasing shoes instead of giving toys to these needy children they smiled at me and said yes, this is definitely what our families need for Christmas.
Because the Children need shoes we wont be giving out toys this Christmas. (unless we have finances left over after purchasing 2500 shoes)
This week I’ll be ordering some inexpensive shoes for the Tzotzil and Tzeltal Indian children.
We’ll be giving out shoes to children from ages 1-14.
Christmas Smiles in Chiapas
We’ve already programmed our Christmas special presentation. Each special day will include Shoes, perhaps a small toy if we have the finances, piñatas, candy, puppets and a special Christmas message. Each day we’ll gather together at least 5 churches in each location,
Here’s our Christmas schedule so far. We’ll add more communities to this list as finances permit:
December 15th– New Church dedication in Tzonjok, Cancuc followed by our first Christmas Presentation with the Tzeltal Indian. We’ll minster to well over 500 children this day since there are a lot of Tzotzil Indian tribes in this community.
December 16th– Pocoinichim. 2 large churches (including Takiukum)will meet here along with 3 smaller mission churches.
December 19th– Acteal. 11 years ago there was a great massacre in this town. We’ll be bringing a message of New life, hope and love to this community. The Zapatista town of Polum is 30 minutes away. Our church of over 250 people will be walking from Polum to Acteal to participate in this event along with 4 other churches.
December 21– Cholchihutal- This is a remote region of Chiapas. Several missions churches will meet with us this day. Pray for good weather since these Tzotziles will have to walk a long time to get to our central meeting place.
December 24- We’ll be spending Christmas Eve in the central Church of the Tzotziles in Chenahlo, Chiapas. In addition to bringing in Churches from las Limas, we’d like to do an evangelistic effort this day to reach out to the community by having each family invite a family to celebrate with us.
Christmas Day, December 25– Tzalhachin. Some of our largest and poorest Churches (Tzenembolom, Cruzton) will meet together for a day of Celebrating the Birth Of Jesus. How will you be spending Christmas? Come visit us.
Will You Help us put shoes on Maria’s feet?
We still don’t have all the finances needed to provide shoes for all the children which we expect to exceed 2500. We made these plans trusting in God to touch your heart to help provide shoes for these needy children during Chirstmas.
We’ll be working hard and traveling long distances to help provide shoes for these childrne’s feet and smiles on the faces of all the Indians we’re ministering to during Chirsitmas.
Will you help us help the children?
Make a tax deductible donation here. (Please specify that you want to make a donation for “Christmas Gifts in Chiapas”) We could really use the donations before December 7th.
We appreciate you!