{"id":1370,"date":"2011-12-26T11:05:33","date_gmt":"2011-12-26T16:05:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/activistfaith\/?p=1370"},"modified":"2011-12-20T11:06:05","modified_gmt":"2011-12-20T16:06:05","slug":"great-christmas-follow-up-report-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/2011\/12\/great-christmas-follow-up-report-2.html","title":{"rendered":"Great Christmas Follow-Up Report"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

[From ActivistFaith.org co-founder and tech director Dan King, also the voice behind Bibledude.net<\/a>]<\/p>\n

The\u00a0@salvationarmy<\/a> is doing some amazing ministry work.<\/p>\n

Just locally\u00a0in my city<\/a>
\nthey run an extremely effective drug and alcohol rehabilitation
\nprogram. It’s a faith-based residential program for men and women who
\nare unable to obtain services elsewhere.<\/p>\n

They not only have rehabilitation programs to help people kick their
\naddictions, but they also continue with transitional programs. They work
\nto re-acclimate graduates into the community and help them resume
\nindependent living.<\/p>\n

They are also leading the way in fighting homelessness and hunger in our area…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In order to offer these services for free, The Salvation Army relies
\nheavily on donations. Among other things, one of their largest sources
\nof funding comes from the Christmas bell-ringing.<\/p>\n

This year our church<\/a>
\nis joining many other area churches to support the Christmas
\nbell-ringing efforts. And our family picked Christmas Eve to serve this
\ngreat ministry…<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We were all like little kids on Christmas morning as we got out there, put on our aprons, and started ringing our bells.<\/p>\n

The sound of the bells will ring in my ears for a while afterwards,
\nbut I can’t imagine a more beautiful sound right now. I think of every
\nperson that will be helped as a result of the bell that seemed to summon
\nso many generous donations.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As long as I can remember, every time my son heard that familiar bell he wanted to run and drop some spare change.<\/p>\n

I smile as I remember the face of the little girl, maybe 3 years old,
\nwho was surprised by her father handing her a crisp one-dollar bill to
\ndrop in the bucket. Watching her excitement was one of the best gifts
\nthat I could’ve gotten on this day.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As we thanked people for their donations and wished each a very<\/em> Merry Christmas, many thanked us<\/em>. Me? I’m just a bell-ringer, and there are others who are helping so many in need.<\/p>\n

I cannot help but to think of those in our area who have so little
\nthis year. Like the man who walked by without looking at me as he picked
\nhalf-smoked cigarette butts out of all of the ashtrays along the
\nplaza’s sidewalk. Or the guy in a motorized wheelchair that stopped at
\nevery trash can and reached in to see if there was anything of value to
\nhim.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There were also the really cool moments, like when a couple of girls
\nthat worked in the store came out with some cookies for my son because
\nthey thought he was “SOOO cuuuttte!” He’s too\u00a0embarrassed\u00a0to know how to
\nrespond to that, but his mom and I giggled about it for quite some
\ntime.<\/p>\n

It was a fun day… a long day…<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

All in all, we couldn’t imagine spending our Christmas Eve any other way.<\/p>\n

We pray a blessing over all of the donations that were made, and over
\nall of the people that made them. And we pray for the people that serve
\nand do the REAL<\/em> work at the Salvation Army. Amen, and Merry Christmas!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[From ActivistFaith.org co-founder and tech director Dan King, also the voice behind Bibledude.net] The\u00a0@salvationarmy is doing some amazing ministry work. Just locally\u00a0in my city they run an extremely effective drug and alcohol rehabilitation program. It’s a faith-based residential program for men and women who are unable to obtain services elsewhere. They not only have rehabilitation…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":230,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nGreat Christmas Follow-Up Report - Activist Faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/2011\/12\/great-christmas-follow-up-report-2.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Great Christmas Follow-Up Report - Activist Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[From ActivistFaith.org co-founder and tech director Dan King, also the voice behind Bibledude.net] The\u00a0@salvationarmy is doing some amazing ministry work. Just locally\u00a0in my city they run an extremely effective drug and alcohol rehabilitation program. It’s a faith-based residential program for men and women who are unable to obtain services elsewhere. They not only have rehabilitation…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/2011\/12\/great-christmas-follow-up-report-2.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Activist Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-12-26T16:05:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-12-20T16:06:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/bibledude.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/salvation-army-bell-ringers-590x440.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dillon Burroughs\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Great Christmas Follow-Up Report - Activist Faith","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/2011\/12\/great-christmas-follow-up-report-2.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Great Christmas Follow-Up Report - Activist Faith","og_description":"[From ActivistFaith.org co-founder and tech director Dan King, also the voice behind Bibledude.net] The\u00a0@salvationarmy is doing some amazing ministry work. 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Dillon served in Haiti following the epic 2010 earthquake and has investigated modern slavery in the US and internationally. His books include \"Undefending Christianity,\" \"Not in My Town\" (with Charles J. Powell), and \"Thirst No More\" (October 2011). Discover more at DillonBurroughs.org.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/author\/dburroughs"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/230"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1370"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1371,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1370\/revisions\/1371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}