Be Present for Christmas - Lesson 4 - A Bridge to the King

We prepared Blessings Bags for the homeless as our activity in today's class.  I handed out large ziplock bags and a list last week and the girls returned with their purchases to fill them at the end of our class.

You can find the list I put together for this class on my Freebies page.  You will find the Blessings Bag note there as well. Feel free to use in your project.
http://smdgreetings.blogspot.ca/p/freebies.html


I chose gloves, tuque, soap and a washcloth in a separate baggie, candy, hot chocolate, a pencil and notebook, shampoo, toothbrush and toothpaste.

We included a note to the recipient in each of our bags.

We put together 8 bags which were handed over to our Street Ministry team at church to be handed out to those in need.


I'm selecting my lessons from The Greatest Gift by Ann Voskamp.  The book provides 24 lessons for each day of Advent of which I have chosen 6 for this class.  We will have readings, questions, discussion, and an activity each week.

This week's lesson is from Esther.  She was a Jew but lived in the palace with the king.  Her uncle challenges her. "Don't think for a moment that because you are in the palace you will escape when all other Jews are killed."  We are the ones living inside the gate.  If not us then who will help.  You've got to use the life you have been given to give others life.

Be Present for Christmas - Lesson 3 - Come to the King

With Lesson 3 it comes down to being one to help others.
I chose to make Blessing Bags for our Street Ministry team as our activity this week.  I handed out a list of suggested items I had compiled from the internet and a zip lock bag last week.  We will assemble our bags tonight and hand them over for giving.  You can find the list in my Freebies tab.  Soon homeless here will need warm clothes so I bought a scarf, gloves, a tuque and lip balm.  For health I included cough drops and Advil.  For hygiene I added a toothbrush, (I thought it was important to have a cover for the toothbrush so it stays clean), toothpaste, handi-wipes, shampoo and a microfiber washcloth with a ziplock bag to store it. Sweets are always nice.  Notebooks & pencil just to write a note for someone cause they are not home. Or make a food list when you go to the food bank or notes when at the shelter. Kids came to mind when I saw the pencil crayons.  I could think of so many things that I ended up with 2 bags.

I wanted to include a note for the recipient and with a search on line I decided on this one.

I'm selecting my lessons from The Greatest Gift by Ann Voskamp.  The book provides 24 lessons for each day of Advent of which I have chosen 7 for this class.  We will have readings, questions, discussion, and an activity each week.

This week the lesson focus is Esther the queen who could act to save her people who live outside the gate of the palace in which she lives. It meant being brave to approach the King. Her uncle tells her "This is the moment you were made for: Use the life you have been given to give life to others."

If not you, then who?  We have so much we are compelled to share it.

We made 12 Blessings Bags.  It was so exciting and a lot of fun!!!