Samaritan's Purse Donation Made

As we've done for several years in a row now, my family recently made our annual contribution to Samaritan's Purse's 2011 Gift Catalog. We gave each member of our family $250 and allowed them to "shop" the catalog, selecting items that they wanted to "buy" to help someone in need. Big on our list this year was (there were several other categories, but these are where the majority of our dollars went):

• Orphan Care
• Life-Saving Mosquito Nets
• Vocational Training
• Dairy Goats
• Honeybees
• Baby Chicks
• Equip a Doctor to Save Lives
• Freshwater Wells
• Life-Saving Medicine
• Care for AIDS Orphans and Widows
• Household Water Filters

I paid with my Chase freedom card since they are offering 5% cash back this quarter on charitable contributions. I maxed out the $1,500 limit in one spot, earning $75 to boot! (FYI, I kicked in a $500 donation for "where most needed" to get to the $1,500.)

During the next two months, I'd like to challenge you all to consider how you might be able to help out others. Whether it's with a donation of your money or your time, I'm sure it will be appreciated and be a blessing to those receiving it. We all know it's been a rough few years for many people financially, and whatever you can do this holiday season to help others will certainly make a difference for them. And even if you have been hit by the economy, it's still good to have some perspective -- you're doing much better than most of the world.

Happy holidays!!!!

Comments

[Nashville]

We should give so much more but my wife and I currently make automatic monthly contributions to Second Harvest Food Bank, Nashville Rescue Mission and World Vision with several one-time donations to Red Cross or other organization when some disaster strikes. We like dogs very much so we need to add some dog rescue organization to our list.

I also make a monthly contribution to a certain political organization but I won't get into that. N'er politics nor religion. Ha.

[stoihi]

I'm donating $100 per month to keep two kids in school in Romania.

[Harm]

With all due respect, any organization where one
of the contribution choices is "train and equip an
evangelist" is extremely peculiar. I'll concede that
the Samaritan's Purse organization probably DOES good work,
but the idea of missionaries (God botherers) is very
distasteful to me. Unicef and 'The Heifer project' are
imho better choices....

[Sarah, from Samaritan's Purse]

Thanks so much for your generous gifts. We are so thankful for people like you who make our programs for the poverty-stricken around the world possible.