USA (MNN) — Charity goes hand-in-hand with the holiday season. According to Charity Navigator, contributions given during the month of December represent 21.8% of all online giving. This year’s #GivingTuesday donations exceeded $380 million, according to preliminary estimates reported by NonProfit Times.
Maybe you donate a turkey so a family in need can have Thanksgiving dinner. Or maybe you drop change into a red bucket outside the grocery store. You never meet the people you help, but you trust God to use what you give.
What if you applied the same principle to people who need God’s Word? Wycliffe USA’s Pixie Christensen says their 2018 Gift Catalog highlights several “first Scripture” projects.
Learn more about first Scripture projects here.
“Whether it’s printed or video or audio, it’s the very first Scripture that people group would have,” she explains.
“I think there’s no greater gift to offer a person because it offers them the opportunity to access the Gospel and have the hope of the Gospel.”
(Photo courtesy of Wycliffe Bible Translators USA)
Each year, Wycliffe USA staff work with project coordinators in the field to determine which projects they’ll highlight in the gift catalog. Christensen explains they usually look for projects that are tangible, affordable, and global.
No matter the focus of a project or where it’s located, each effort comes back to one central focus: making God’s Word available in every heart language.
Explore Wycliffe USA’s 2018 Gift Catalog.
“It’s so foundational to discipleship, to growing closer to Christ, to getting to know Christ to begin with,” says Christensen, referring to the Bible.
“We hear so many stories of people who may have had access to the Word of God in the national language of their country, but they didn’t fully understand it. They couldn’t access it in a way that really spoke to them and could change their life.
“Giving them that access to the hope of the Gospel – it’s as good as it can get!”
Header image obtained via Pexels.
