Top - Our staff team Christmas party - receiving gift of a warm blanket Bottom - Christmas celebration - students dancing and receiving their present which is a warm jumper and socks. It has been a busy month for our team as they visit each of our 7 centres. COVID-19 has meant that our usual tradition of inviting the parents to the Christmas function was not possible.
Whether you like it or not, have you (like me) been listening to Christmas music? At this time of the year Moriah Carey and Michael Buble personally visit our house. Their music brings childhood reminiscences, memories of my children growing up and of years past, as well as accompanying my current circumstances - memories in the making. I suppose Christmas music provides an annual soundtrack of our lives, reminding us of the things we value and hold most dear. I suspect there’s a sense of dreaming and hoping for a world and life where all 'is good' and everything that’s important is true and takes centre stage. Our Christmas wishes and dreams are wrapped in the lyrics of so much of the music we are listening to.
As I write these words, my wife is travelling across Sydney to collect her sister – just a few hours before a government enforced four-day lockdown on her local area …who would have thought! No doubt, this year’s Christmas music will provide some powerful recollections of the impact that COVID has had on our lives across 2020. With this my recommendations for this year are the Christmas albums of John Legend and Jamie Cullum. If you haven’t discovered these yet, make sure you listen (and let me know if you like them) …pure Christmas magic!
For at least 30 years, my favourite Christmas song is ‘My Grown-up Christmas Wish’. It’s been sung by all the best (including Barbra!) and it strangely seems to impact my heart and inspire every time I hear it …timeless as they say.
Do you remember me? I sat upon your knee. I wrote to you with childhood fantasies. Well, I'm all grown up now, can still need help somehow? I'm not a child but my heart still can dream. So, here's my lifelong wish, my grown-up Christmas list, not for myself but for a world in need …No more lives torn apart, that wars would never start, and time would heal all hearts. Everyone would have a friend, that right would always win, and love would never end. This is my grown-up Christmas list.
I’m one of those people (which really annoys my kids) who is happy to not receive presents. I don’t really like ‘stuff’. I really hate the waste and the thought of most of so much ending up in the bin. I do love seeing children get presents though. So, what’s on my grown-up Christmas list this year? Probably the same as you… the simple things in life - being with family, happiness, health, safety, prosperity, justice, equality, bringing God’s love to those in need …stuff that won’t end up as landfill. If only these things were in abundance as the stuff that fills our supermarket shelves or as easily accessible as the click of an online shopping purchase. It’s why Christmas can be painful and disappointing for many people. So, coupled with my new years’ resolutions, my goal continues to be anything that makes a difference in the lives of people. It’s why I am so committed to my work in India, and why I am writing to invite you to join me and the team at Project Help India.
As you do the last of your Christmas shopping, trying to find a perfect gift for that special person who seems to have everything, or who perhaps like me just doesn’t like stuff, can I make a few suggestions.
Educate and feed a slum child = $20 month
Educate and feed a slum child in our Disability Centre = $30 month
Pay for a teacher’s monthly salary = $100 month (all of our staff are local community members)
Pay for a school cook’s salary = $40 month (all of our staff are local community members)
Provide a COVID-19 food ration pack (containing flour, rice, spices, salt and oil) to feed a struggling slum family who is unable to work = $10
Might you consider adding some of these items to your own grown up Christmas list? If you make a donation you can have the confidence of knowing that your gift is helping someone in a meaningful and significant way. Click the DONATE button at the top of this page.
Thanks again,
love Doug (Sydney)