When I was a kid, my family had an advent calendar that we used every Christmas season. It had little paper doors and behind each door was a part of the Christmas story. When Isla was a baby, I wanted to recreate it to use as our advent tradition as well. I rewrote the story a bit (gotta use that theology degree!), adding some pictures to help them remember the story before they could actually read it, and made a paper chain that we hung on our Christmas tree. Each night we’d pull a ring off the chain and add to the story bit by bit. By halfway through the month, the kids would have the story memorized – although when they were very little they’d make the cutest mistakes (“and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in the pot” – 3 year old Ruby).
Although the story is timeless and for all ages, I felt that recently they started to outgrow the tradition, so we tried a few different things, but nothing really stuck. Finally finally, we found a new advent tradition last year that we’ve absolutely loved.
It was inspired by a sermon Caleb preached about what our posture should be as we wait – not just during advent, but all year long as we wait for the return of Christ. Part of the waiting is the recognition that we desperately need Jesus to come back, that this world is still so broken and in need of redemption. We could find a small little house on the top of a mountain, and spend our time praying and waiting, but our conviction is that we have work to do while we wait – to live out kingdom values right now and share the hope we have for a coming kingdom where wrongs will be made right, pain and injustice will be no more, and sin will be forever banished.
So each night during advent, we focused on an organization, a ministry, or a worker that is working in the waiting. We watched their videos, read their newsletter updates, and spent time in prayer. We set a budget for the month, and at the end of each week, the kids chose one ministry from that week that they wanted to financially support with a one time gift.
It was so eye-opening for our kids – they know what we do, they have a general idea of what some of our colleagues do, but to get into the details of sooo many amazing people and projects all over the world was really fun and challenging and encouraging. It exposed them to needs that they weren’t aware of, they were inspired by the creativity of people working to meet those needs, and burdened to pray.
I tried to do a different theme each week – based on location, type of work, our relationships, and was always surprised at which organizations or workers the kids connected to and wanted to support.
While I miss the days of cute little voices excited about their turn to pull a ring off the chain and recite the Christmas story, it’s been a different kind of joy to see our children grow in their awareness of the world and how God is working all over.
For those who might be interested in trying something similar with your kids next advent season, I would encourage you to start with people you know. It was especially powerful for our kids to learn more about their friends and family members and what they are involved with. But for those who want a little head start, I’ll link some of the ministries/organizations/people we learned about and prayed for these past two years. It’s not a complete list, of course – not all have websites or public pages, but it’s something. Would love to hear of others you might recommend that we can add to our list for next year!
Safe Haven – Tahaddi – Heartline Haiti – A Place at the Table – Northwest Community Center – Live Love – Livada Orphan Care – Radius International – Rafiki – Le Quai 67 – WV Ukraine Relief – Athletes in Action Lebanon – Youth for Christ Lebanon – Shi Bifeed – Heart for Lebanon – I am a Woman – Balassan – Spoken Worldwide – Prestige Learning Institute – Wycliffe – The Hard Places Community – Isaac Ishmael Initiative – Chicago Welcome Center – and many more!
beautiful feet: the blog version 