GIFT AID idea for Christmas

PRESENT AID

Well done to all those in the UK who contributed to Present Aid projects this year and raised over three million pounds! The money may not always be used exactly for the items listed in the catalogue, but we are assured the money goes to health, agricultural and water based projects throughout the world.

At our church this morning our congregation felt quite proud to have raised a grand sum of money, that in December, we would have spent on Christmas Greeting Cards for one another. Using Powerpoint, we saw before us all the gifts that had been purchased with the money raised. It was an excellent presentation.

Our vicar suggested the list sounded like something from the Twelve Days of Christmas, hence the rhyme below…(not exactly what our congregation gave, but something to aim higher for next year perhaps!)…

The song should begin:-

On the first day of Christmas, someone gave to me…

a large brown , bouncing basketball…etc.,

The Twelve Gifts at Christmas

12 cows a-milking

11 pigs a-guzzling

10 hives a-buzzing

9 goats a-kidding

8 ducks a-swimming

7 saplings-growing

6 taps a-flowing

FIVE HUNDRED WORMS…wriggling in their cans

4 nets for mosquitos

3 medi-kits

2 stethescopes and

a large brown bouncing basketball

It has been suggested by some, that such gifts are ‘patronising’ towards under-developed countries, and that they illustrate the low horizons that many campaigners and charities have for the developing world.

They say that we should rather be…PROTESTING for a far better standard of living for the poor; SHOUTING OUT at governments who pledge money for relief and don’t pay up, and we should be HIGHLIGHTING the need to cancel the debt owed to the rich by the poor!

OF COURSE WE SHOULD, AND MANY OF US DO!

That’s what I’m doing right now! That is what my church does! But if Present Aid catalogues encourage people to give and be generous, then print more and more I say!

Bring them on!