Tag Archives: World Vision bloggers

Occupy Advent | Blog 9 of the 12 blogs of Christmas

It’s the day after Thanksgiving, and the holiday season gift-buying is in full swing. Black Friday specials have the shoppers out in droves. Downtown Portland is a sea of moving people with packages, shopping lists, and agendas. Me, I’m armed with my Nikon camera, hoping to capture some artistic street photos. I stand on a street corner for a half hour or so, just getting a feel for the people walking from store to store. I notice that some of the downtown citizens remain outside the retail giants’ doors. There is an older gentleman attempting to hand out copies of his religion’s periodical. There are street performers and musicians demonstrating their talents in hopes that the holiday revelers would donate a...
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Less of more and more of Jesus | Blog 8 of the 12 blogs of Christmas

Back before the days of flip cameras and high-definition video cameras, my parents recorded some of our early Christmases on tape. Well, I don’t even know what they used to record it, but they made a cassette tape for me with the recorded memories. Yes. I am old. Anyway, on one particular Christmas, my parents had gotten 2-year-old me what they assumed would be the hit of the year — my very own play kitchen. The tape documents me coming down the stairs Christmas morning and discovering all the gifts Santa had left behind....
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A classic Christmas story goes Veggie!

I am usually a stickler on no-Christmas-stuff-until-Thanksgiving-is-done rule. I want to experience one holiday at a time — mixing pilgrims with Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree is just too much for me! But, this year, I caved. In November, I opened up my mailbox to find a new VeggieTales DVD — a Christmas Veggie Tales movie, “The Little Drummer Boy.” I couldn’t tell my kids to wait several weeks before we watched it, right? Right?! We had to sit down immediately and see what Bob and Larry were up to! And I’m so glad we did....
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Compassion | Blog 6 of the 12 blogs of Christmas

For years, I never understood Christmas. Admittedly, I was a bit of a Scrooge. It just seemed like the whole thing was a farce. Every made-for-TV movie I watched between Thanksgiving and New Year’s preached the same gospel: “It’s not about presents.” But then, every Christmas morning, I was inundated with presents. It didn’t make sense. Someone was lying. Everything you want? My parents, and probably yours, would conclude every December 25th with the same nervous question: “So… did you get everything you wanted?” Are you kidding me? Everything I wanted? Is this what we want to teach our children about life? That you can get everything you want?...
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What only God can do | Blog 2 of the 12 blogs of Christmas

Years of being blessed with a low checking account balance forced me to rethink my approach to Christmas. Those were not easy years as I tried to tell myself that Christmas isn’t all about the presents, while fearing that my family would consider me cheap or inconsiderate. A budget gift is a budget gift. In a happy case of irony, my focus on gift-giving led me back to a better conception of Christmas. If art thrives on limitation, gift-giving followed suit. If I only had $10 to spend on each person, I had to ask very different questions for gift-giving, the most important being: “What would this person never buy for himself/herself?” This led to a series of time-consuming projects,...
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