Rick Steves Christmas Fundraiser Brings More than 430 000 to Bread for the World

Image from OpenClipArt

1,659 

That figure represents the number of supporters of Rick Steves who answered his challenge to help raise funds for Bread for the World during the Christmas season in 2015. The travel writer matched donations dollar for dollar.  People who donated $100 received a gift from Steves: his European Christmas gift package or his Complete Collection 2000-2016 DVD Box Set (all 100 of my travel shows)."

Steves and ex-Sen. Tom Harkin at Bread 40th anniversary (2014)

In a Thank You letter to supporters, Steves said:

"Together, you contributed $218,000. And with my match, collectively, we raised over $430,000 to help power BFTWs work in explaining to Congress the needs of our nations poor, homeless, and hungry people.

 "We all want to get our fiscal house in order. And BFTW has been very effective in its advocacy work encouraging our government not to balance the budget by cutting vital services to our nations most needy." 

Thanks so much for making this a very expensive Christmas for me. Giving like this, in partnership with caring travelers like you, makes my work even more gratifying than it already is. Happy holidays and Merry Christmas to all.

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Merry Christmas from The Homestead Laboratory!

Wishing you an awesome holiday season with lots of fun, craziness, and extra eggnog!

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Bread for the World Member Rick Steves Invites You to Join Him in Helping to End Hunger This Christmas

"...Im one of thousands of Christian Americans who really see Bread for the World not as a charity but as a service. Together, we want to fight hunger, and Bread for the World represents that, and does our work right here in Washington, D.C."  excerpt from Rick Steves address at the Bread for the World national gathering, June 2014

Rick Steves loves Bread for the World. Every Christmas season, he puts together a special appeal to raise funds for our organization. The beloved television travel host and author has an offer for you again this year.

"Heres my challenge to you," Steves says on his Travel Blog. "Make a gift of $100 or more and as a thank you, Ill match your gifts (up to $250,000) and send you my European Christmas gift package or my Complete Collection 2000-2016 DVD Box Set (all 100 of my travel shows)."

This video tells you more about the European Christmas Gift Package


If you make your gift by December 10 (thats next Thursday!),  you’ll get everything in time for Christmas. "I’ll happily pay for the cost of these gifts and postage so that Bread can use 100 percent of your donation for their work," said Steves.

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Members of Albuquerque Synagogues Serve Meals at Homeless Shelters on Christmas Day

By Michelle Radden-Vogler

For the past four years, members of several Jewish synagogues in Albuquerque; Congregation Nahalat Shalom, Temple Albert and B’nai Israel, have been preparing and serving breakfast meals to homeless people in our community on Christmas day and Easter Sunday. Volunteers from many different faith communities in Albuquerque also participate.

This year, Nahalat Shalom hosted the meal at the Good Shepherd Center and Congregation Albert prepared and served breakfast at St. Martins Hospitality (in much of the same manner as on Christmas Day, 2014)

As members of the Jewish community we are providing this service so that those Christians who regularly work at the Good Shepherd Center have the opportunity to celebrate these important holidays with their families or in ways that are meaningful to them.

We are also participating in the Jewish concept of Tikkun Olam, a Hebrew term defined as ‘acts of kindness through human actions that help to repair the world’. Through these actions we seek to transform our broken world so that it reflect the divine values of justice and compassion.

The challenges of hunger, homelessness and poverty are huge issues that must involve all of us- from different faith communities and belief systems—in fact from every aspect of society.

We are grateful to be part of these efforts within our community as well as the many social justice projects affecting our world today.

The photos in this blog post were taken on Christmas day 2015 at Good Shepherd Homeless Center. The center, located in downtown Albuquerque, serves over 300 meals every day of the year to people in need. Brother Gerard Sullivan and all the fine members of the Center provide a variety of programs that assist people in lifting themselves out of homelessness and poverty.

The author is a member of Nahalat Shalom and a participant in the Interfaith Hunger Coalition.

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Merry Christmas from THL!

Wishing you and yours a warm, cozy holiday season!

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Christmas in Bangladesh A Great Gust of Joy

The term "Peace on Earth, Good Will to All," relates to the Jewish concept of Shalom: wholeness, health, peace, welfare, safety soundness, tranquility, prosperity, perfectness, fullness, rest, harmony, the absence of agitation or discord.

This account of a Christmas celebration in Bangladesh reflects a true sense of shalom. The reflection, entitled "On Christmas Day: a great gust of joy," was shared on the Taizé website in 2012. Here is an excerpt from this uplifting piece:

The mid day meal today was festive, although the menu was simple. There were at least 150 of us who sat down together! Thankfully our house is surrounded by a large garden, close to the Bramaputra River which flows through the town. Among our guests, we had over 50 children and young people with a mental disablement whom we know well, accompanied by young volunteers who share their daily life. Most of these children and young disabled people were abandoned at birth by their very poor parents. There was also a good number of very poor children from our two “children’s clubs” situated in two of the disadvantaged neighbourhoods of the town. Some of them live in a little shanty town near the station, or else in the station itself when they have no family. They had prepared songs and dances which they presented after the meal, during an entertainment improvised out of doors.

There were also a good number of Moslem friends, as well as Hindus and Christians from our little community, who were very happy to spend this time together; among them were crippled people, a blind man, and beggars we had invited the evening before….

This was a very beautiful moment to live together with much laughter and singing. It was like a great gust of joy and shared friendship that carried us along…. Added to all this, it was a beautiful sunny day; the previous days had been particularly cold."

Read the full reflection

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Christmas Blessings from Bread New Mexico

When the white stars talk together like sisters

And when the winter hills

Raise their grand semblance in the freezing night,

Somewhere one window

Bleeds like the brown eye of an open force.

Hills, stars,

White stars that stand above the eastern stable.

Look down and offer Him.

The dim adoring light of your belief.

Whose small Heart bleeds with infinite fire.

Shall not this Child

(When we shall hear the bells of His amazing voice)

Conquer the winter of our hateful century?

-Thomas Merton, excerpts from A Christmas Card (1947)
(see full poem in Thomas Mertons Marian Poetry, University of Dayton)

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Family Promise Invites You to Christmas Homes Tour Fundraiser in Los Ranchos de Albuquerque

 
Family Promise of Albuquerque invites you to its annual Christmas Home Tour on Saturday, November 21 (10:00 a.m-4:00 p.m.), and Sunday, November 22 (noon-4:00 p.m.)

Enjoy beautifully and uniquely decorated homes in the Los Ranchos area while supporting the homeless children of Albuquerque. 

Tickets are $20 and are available online or at the homes on the day of the tour.

• 4638 Orchard Ct. NW (map)
• 5714 Eakes Ct., NW (map)
• 1124 Salamanca, NW (map)
  
• 4609 Los Poblanos Circle, NW (map)
  

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Father James Martin How to Avoid Christmas Stress No Less Yes

(Thanks to Jesuit Father James Martin for this reflection, which was one of his Facebook posts)

Can I make a confession? I’m starting to dislike Christmas. Before you ask me to hand in my collar, let me clarify.

When I say “Christmas” I mean the unpleasant cultural trappings that have almost suffocated the holiday: overheated stores packed with stressed-out shoppers; the pressure people feel to buy, buy, buy; and the endless commercials that make the season feel more about spending money than about anything else.

Is it possible to set aside the unhealthy aspects of Christmas and focus on the Nativity of Our Lord?

Yes, and let me suggest three ways to do so.

• First, just say no. You don’t have to go to every party, send a card to every friend, or buy a gift for every family member. Saying no to one thing (a party) means saying yes to something else (time to pray).
• Second, just say less. Try sending three-quarters as many cards or buying half the gifts you did last year.
• Third, just say yes. Choose events that are more spiritual (church services, lessons, and carols) as a way to nourish yourself and prepare for the real Christmas.

Overall, it’s important to pull back from the craziness and to carve out more time for prayer during the Advent and Christmas season. Happily, the beautiful readings of Advent easily invite us to prayer.

Christ wants to enter into your life in a new way during these holy weeks. But if you’re in a store listening to two people fight over a video game, you may not hear him.

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