{"id":1943,"date":"2011-11-29T14:14:38","date_gmt":"2011-11-29T19:14:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/?p=1943"},"modified":"2011-11-29T14:23:42","modified_gmt":"2011-11-29T19:23:42","slug":"discover-true-extravagance-this-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2011\/11\/discover-true-extravagance-this-christmas.html","title":{"rendered":"Discover true extravagance this Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/files\/2011\/11\/CTSVideoScreenGrab.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-1948\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/104\/2011\/11\/CTSVideoScreenGrab-150x150.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>Based on last week&#8217;s record-breaking Black Friday sales numbers, it looks like we&#8217;re on our way to an extravagant Christmas season. Retailers took in $7 billion more than last year for a total of $52.4 billion this weekend.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Yet, all those extravagant boxes of earthly treasure are completely empty.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This Christmas, be extravagant for orphans. Give generously to alleviate their suffering. Spend yourself on behalf of the poor. Don&#8217;t hold back. <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/donate.hopechest.org\/site\/TR\/Events\/General?fr_id=1100&amp;pg=entry\">Join Change Their Story and start raising money today.<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s show the world what true extravagance really is! That&#8217;s what I want to do with my Christmas. How about you?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Take a minute to watch <a href=\"http:\/\/donate.hopechest.org\/site\/TR\/Events\/General?fr_id=1100&amp;pg=entry\">this video<\/a> about how one young woman makes an extravagant decision to give up her Christmas wishes to help an orphan in Africa&#8230;<\/strong><\/p>\n<iframe title=\"Change Their Story 2012\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/32764990?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<p>I invite you to become an extravagant giver this year by joining <a href=\"http:\/\/donate.hopechest.org\/site\/TR\/Events\/General?fr_id=1100&amp;pg=entry\"><strong>Change Their Story<\/strong><\/a>. You are invited to sign up and fundraise for orphans who are starving and girls who are targeted by sex traffickers.<strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Your family will never be the same.<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>And if you aren&#8217;t ready to take that step, then consider<strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/donate.hopechest.org\/site\/Donation2?idb=[[S76:idb]]&amp;1760.donation=form1&amp;df_id=1760\">making a donation<\/a><\/strong> or supporting one of our HopeRaisers. See the full list <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/donate.hopechest.org\/site\/TR?fr_id=1100&amp;pg=topparticipantlist\">here<\/a>. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Thank you for partnering with HopeChest. Together we can make this Christmas an extravagant blessing to orphans who need our support now more than ever before<strong>. <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Based on last week&#8217;s record-breaking Black Friday sales numbers, it looks like we&#8217;re on our way to an extravagant Christmas season. Retailers took in $7 billion more than last year for a total of $52.4 billion this weekend. Yet, all those extravagant boxes of earthly treasure are completely empty.\u00a0 This Christmas, be extravagant for orphans.&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":87,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,8,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-current-affairs","category-orphans"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Discover true extravagance this Christmas - Red Letters<\/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\/redletters\/2011\/11\/discover-true-extravagance-this-christmas.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Discover true extravagance this Christmas - Red Letters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Based on last week&#8217;s record-breaking Black Friday sales numbers, it looks like we&#8217;re on our way to an extravagant Christmas season. Retailers took in $7 billion more than last year for a total of $52.4 billion this weekend. Yet, all those extravagant boxes of earthly treasure are completely empty.\u00a0 This Christmas, be extravagant for orphans.&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2011\/11\/discover-true-extravagance-this-christmas.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Red Letters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-11-29T19:14:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-11-29T19:23:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/files\/2011\/11\/CTSVideoScreenGrab-150x150.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tom Davis\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Discover true extravagance this Christmas - Red Letters","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\/redletters\/2011\/11\/discover-true-extravagance-this-christmas.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Discover true extravagance this Christmas - Red Letters","og_description":"Based on last week&#8217;s record-breaking Black Friday sales numbers, it looks like we&#8217;re on our way to an extravagant Christmas season. 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Yet, all those extravagant boxes of earthly treasure are completely empty.\u00a0 This Christmas, be extravagant for orphans.&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2011\/11\/discover-true-extravagance-this-christmas.html","og_site_name":"Red Letters","article_published_time":"2011-11-29T19:14:38+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-11-29T19:23:42+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/files\/2011\/11\/CTSVideoScreenGrab-150x150.png"}],"author":"Tom Davis","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2011\/11\/discover-true-extravagance-this-christmas.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2011\/11\/discover-true-extravagance-this-christmas.html","name":"Discover true extravagance this Christmas - Red Letters","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2011\/11\/discover-true-extravagance-this-christmas.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2011\/11\/discover-true-extravagance-this-christmas.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/files\/2011\/11\/CTSVideoScreenGrab-150x150.png","datePublished":"2011-11-29T19:14:38+00:00","dateModified":"2011-11-29T19:23:42+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#\/schema\/person\/c78d22af30aa2e0860a621fadf855b92"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2011\/11\/discover-true-extravagance-this-christmas.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2011\/11\/discover-true-extravagance-this-christmas.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2011\/11\/discover-true-extravagance-this-christmas.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/files\/2011\/11\/CTSVideoScreenGrab-150x150.png","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/files\/2011\/11\/CTSVideoScreenGrab-150x150.png"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2011\/11\/discover-true-extravagance-this-christmas.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Discover true extravagance this Christmas"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/","name":"Red Letters","description":"Christian, Christian Inspiration, Christian News, Christian Activism News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#\/schema\/person\/c78d22af30aa2e0860a621fadf855b92","name":"Tom Davis","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b5c\/b5c5842c5b6dd6c51062873d0bb1dfafx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b5c\/b5c5842c5b6dd6c51062873d0bb1dfafx96.jpg","caption":"Tom Davis"},"description":"Tom Davis currently serves as CEO of Children's HopeChest (www.hopechest.org), a global orphan care ministry headquartered in Colorado Springs. A tireless advocate for fatherless children, Davis has spent most of his adult life calling U.S. believers to become the hands and feet of Jesus Christ to the 143 million orphans living around the world. Through those connections, thousands of orphans now have the bright and hopeful future--one that is filled with opportunities and the love of the one true Father. Davis speaks hundreds of times each year at churches and conferences, mobilizing the church to action on behalf of the poor. He is the author of four books. His most recent novel, SCARED is a fictionalized account of his first-hand experiencing living and working with orphans in Swaziland, Africa. Davis' blog is the premier resource for the latest developments in Christian orphan ministry. Davis also currently teaches courses as adjunct professor at George Fox University in Newberg, OR. When not traveling the globe, Davis resides in the mountains of Colorado in the small community of Palmer Lake. He and his wife Emily have seven children, including two adopted daughters from Russia.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/author\/tdavis"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/87"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1943"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1943\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1947,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1943\/revisions\/1947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}