Christmas Outreach goal set at reaching 15,000 children with the Gospel.

By November 16, 2006

CIS (MNN) — Christmas is coming fast, and Slavic Gospel Association is gearing up again for their Immanuel’s Child Christmas Outreach.

It’s one of their favorite times of year, a time churches from North America join hands with churches in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) to minister the love of Christ to needy families.

SGA’s Joel Griffith says it’s a great outreach because, “Dedicated Christians from local Bible-preaching churches deliver the gifts and establish credibility in the community. They develop one-on-one relationships with the children to make disciples. It also opens the door for follow-up ministry that takes place throughout the year. It’s just really a neat church partnership.”

When individuals and churches in the US sponsor a child in the CIS through SGA, that child receives a signed “Star of Bethlehem” ornament. Local churches in the CIS purchase and wrap a gift, and deliver it along with the ornament, a Russian-language children’s Bible, candy and nutritious fruit, warm clothes and toiletry items they urgently need.

Through special Christmas presentations for these kids, many hear and understand the love of Christ, but Griffith says it doesn’t stop there. “What we often find in addition to the children that will attend these presentations for Immanuel’s Child, we often find that they go home and they’re often sort of used as an open door to witness to the families, their caregivers, their parents, their relatives. And the parents get interested in the church in that way, and often will begin attending services.”

Griffith says it’s and open door to share Christ with needy families. “It’s really a wonderful opportunity to have not only churches here have a ministry overseas across the lands of Russia, it’s also a chance to help the churches there have an open door to reach their communities and children in their communities.”

It really is a powerful outreach that impacts many lives, says Griffith, “We get the testimonies from the church planters and the church workers who are in the orphanages or their neighborhoods, and very frequently they will share stories of some of the children. And every now and then a child will send a note themselves, or the parents will send a note, saying how much this outreach meant to them. It helps them see Christians in a whole different light, maybe, than they’d seen them before. And it’s just a great way to glorify the Name of Christ, lift up the Name of Christ, and introduce Him to children that probably would not hear the Gospel any other way.”

Every $25 given toward the Immanuel’s Child outreach will provide substantial Christmas gifts. These gifts will help establish a loving link between you and Russian children as well as their families. Last year they reached about eleven thousand children. Each year, preparations begin almost immediately after Christmas season, and SGA’s goal this year is to reach fifteen thousand children.

Click here to learn more and help with the Immanuel’s Child Christmas Outreach.

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