{"id":261,"date":"2008-12-15T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-12-15T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/2008\/12\/what-do-you-get-an-orphan-for-christmas.html"},"modified":"2011-12-04T15:47:49","modified_gmt":"2011-12-04T20:47:49","slug":"what-do-you-get-an-orphan-for-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2008\/12\/what-do-you-get-an-orphan-for-christmas.html","title":{"rendered":"What do you get an orphan for Christmas?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the U.S., we ask the question, &#8220;What do you get for the person who has everything?&#8221; Let&#8217;s turn that around&#8230;&#8221;What do you get the child who has nothing?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>At first, you might think of basic necessities like food or clothing. Perhaps you&#8217;d even think about toys or a bike.<\/p>\n<p>Over the past decade of working with children who have less than nothing, I can tell you this: What an orphan wants for Christmas is for another human being to express the lavish, extravagant, and unconditional love of Jesus to them. They want&#8211;like all children do&#8211;to know that they are special and chosen and loved.<\/p>\n<p>Would you like to give this gift?<\/p>\n<p>I have seen thousands of orphans lives transformed through relationships built with their U.S. sponsor. When you give <em>yourself<\/em> to a child, it is something unique and personal. It does not need to be shared with others. And it is cherished above all other gifts I have seen.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve also watched thousands of sponsors transformed into the hands and feet of Jesus&#8211;through prayer, letter writing, short-term missions, and orphan advocacy.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s more than sponsorship. It&#8217;s how you give the gift of yourself and your family&#8217;s love to a child who longs to know what it feels like to be loved.<\/p>\n<p>If you would like to start this process with me and Children&#8217;s HopeChest. Go to <a title=\"Change a Story Today\" href=\"http:\/\/donate.hopechest.org\/change\">this link<\/a> for more information and to sign-up online.<\/p>\n<p>It will be the best Christmas present you give this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the U.S., we ask the question, &#8220;What do you get for the person who has everything?&#8221; Let&#8217;s turn that around&#8230;&#8221;What do you get the child who has nothing?&#8221; At first, you might think of basic necessities like food or clothing. Perhaps you&#8217;d even think about toys or a bike. Over the past decade of&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":87,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-africa"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What do you get an orphan for 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\/2008\/12\/what-do-you-get-an-orphan-for-christmas.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What do you get an orphan for Christmas? - Red Letters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the U.S., we ask the question, &#8220;What do you get for the person who has everything?&#8221; Let&#8217;s turn that around&#8230;&#8221;What do you get the child who has nothing?&#8221; At first, you might think of basic necessities like food or clothing. 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Over the past decade of&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2008\/12\/what-do-you-get-an-orphan-for-christmas.html","og_site_name":"Red Letters","article_published_time":"2008-12-15T05:00:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-12-04T20:47:49+00:00","author":"Tom Davis","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2008\/12\/what-do-you-get-an-orphan-for-christmas.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2008\/12\/what-do-you-get-an-orphan-for-christmas.html","name":"What do you get an orphan for Christmas? - Red Letters","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#website"},"datePublished":"2008-12-15T05:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2011-12-04T20:47:49+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#\/schema\/person\/c78d22af30aa2e0860a621fadf855b92"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2008\/12\/what-do-you-get-an-orphan-for-christmas.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2008\/12\/what-do-you-get-an-orphan-for-christmas.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2008\/12\/what-do-you-get-an-orphan-for-christmas.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"What do you get an orphan for 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\/261","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=261"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1987,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261\/revisions\/1987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}