Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Christmas Day is a hectic, joyful, fun, and exciting day...at least for most of us. But unfortunately for some it is the most depressing, loneliest day of the year.

I'd like for you to consider for just a moment what it would be like if you had no one to share Christmas with.

Perhaps you remember Ebenezer Scrooge from that great Classic Charles Dicken's Christmas story, “Christmas Carol.” I remember a scene in the movie version of that story when during Christmas past, young Ebenezer was at boarding school. Christmas time came and all the young men were laughing and running about, excited about going home for Christmas, but not young Ebenezer. He was left behind. What a sad scene! Well, in skilled nursing homes, and hospitals, all over our nation, thousands of people are experiencing just that same sort of loneliness. They are left behind, left alone, abandoned on Christmas Day.

It works something like this: Sometimes a family will come take Aunt Martha or Grandma or Grandpa home for Christmas dinner…at least for a couple of hours. But more often there are those left behind that have no one, no family or friends that arrive to even say Merry Christmas. They are lonely, forgotten dear old people sitting in half lit nursing home hallways, or in cold dark rooms, lit only by the flicker of TV light, with maybe rock music blaring on the overhead hallway speakers. Usually Christmas dinner consists of a cold turkey sandwich, served by a skeleton crew who themselves have been left behind. It can be a terribly sad place . . . Loneliness, doubt, bitterness, frustration and the general feeling that No-One really CARES about me start to set in as the day drags on! Many feel that even God has forgotten them for Christmas!

This is where you come in . . . This is your opportunity to warm the heart of these forgotten ones.

Each year on Christmas Day we visit thousands of people, like the ones I described. We storm into these nursing homes and hospitals with laughter, singing, a smile, maybe even a small gift. The halls are filled with children running up and down, hugging and kissing, laughing and singing. For one glorious day we come Ho Ho Ho'ing our way into their lives, and hopefully into their hearts with the love of Jesus.

Christmas is about giving, not merely getting! The lesson this will teach your children and your children's children will be a legacy that will be treasured for a lifetime. Pray what God would have you do. There will always be greater need than you or I can personally meet. However, if God is directing you to give of yourself in this way, I believe you will experience great joy and confidence walking in His strength. Realize that even simply visiting one lonely soul on Christmas day will make a wonderful difference in their life. Read James 1:27 and pray.

A Christmas day visit can be as simple as stopping by a nursing home or hospital, and entering one room just to say, Merry Christmas. Or perhaps, you could take a small gift to someone, or sing for someone, or you could make it as grand as buying and wrapping and giving hundreds of gifts, singing and hugging and kissing and loving up a hundred people in multiple nursing homes or hospitals.

This Family Christmas Day Ministry is your own family ministry program, it will take on your personality and family flavor.

To get started, play the video, and download the Quick Reference Guide. This short document includes suggestions on how to get started to make a difference in the lives of others, as well as your own. Enjoy this Family Christmas Day adventure.

I encourage you to pray about what God would have you do.

Thank you for taking the time to read.

In Him,

Sam