To know Christ, grow in Christ, and share Christ's love.
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To know Christ, grow in Christ, and share Christ's love. |
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If your parent is in prison, you do hard time…. Your heart is locked behind a wall of loneliness. Your future is bound by shame. Every year the nation-wide Angel Tree Prison ministry, through the work of churches like St. Matthews, reaches out to the nearly half million children of incarcerated parents with hope and the promise of the love of Christ.
Children of felons are the forgotten victims of crime. Their grief is the same as any child who has suffered the loss of a parent. But their grief comes filled with guilt, confusion, shame and fear. They may have seen their parent taken away in handcuffs, may be teased or shunned at school and many lose contact with the parent in prison while not truly understanding where they have gone and not knowing when or if they will return. The Angel Tree program helps children connect with their parents in a very special way. This year we at St Matthew have two opportunities to be of service to the Angel Tree ministry.
Sponsoring an Angel Tree Child - When you sign up for an Angel Tree Christmas child or family, you’ll receive the names of one or more children whose mom or dad in prison has personally filled out an application for their child and selected the general type of gifts they would like their child to receive. You purchase and wrap the gifts, and deliver them. Angel Tree encourages gift deliverers to pray for their children and their caregivers, and deliver Angel Tree age-appropriate materials with your gifts to help your children share God’s love.
Beginning November 19th after the 10:30 Sunday Services and at the Alternative Gifts Market you will have the opportunity to sign-up and select a child. You can select a boy or a girl ranging in age from 3 months to 18 years. If you want you can sign-up for multiple children, usually in the same family. When you receive your child and information about the child’s caregivers, you will also receive detail resource information from Angel Tree to assist you in:
- Contacting the child’s caregivers, including information about the family situation that she/he is currently living in.
- Gift tags for your gifts and a personal message from the parent in prison that he/she would like to have delivered with the gift.
- Information about how to deliver the gifts to your child.
On December 10, 2006 after the 10:30 service, there will be a meeting for all Angel Tree volunteers to share our experiences and to answer questions about shopping for or delivering our gifts. Join us if you would like to participate this year.
Giving to the Angel Tree Ministry in South East Texas – Every year we are asked the question “I want to help, but I don’t know if I can shop and deliver gifts to a child… What can I do? This year St. Matthew will be helping the Angel Tree Ministry reach out to 1300 children of felons in some the very poor areas of South East Texas. Your gift of a Walmart gift card in any amount (preferably $25.00 increments) will be given to the Angel Tree regional office and distributed to local volunteers to purchase gifts for these special children (the children will not be given the gift cards). If you cannot bring a Walmart gift card, simply write a check to St Matthews with “Angel Tree” in the memo line and we will purchase the gift cards for you.
If you would like to volunteer to help coordinate the Angel Tree Ministry, please call Susan LaValley at 345-3942 or SusanLaValley@yahoo.com.
With Angel Tree Christmas, everyone wins. You will be a blessing to the prisoner who is able to feel the pride for doing something personal for his or her child; the child experiences the joy from knowing their parent cares and that they have not been forgotten. You reap the rewards of service and enjoy the spiritual growth that comes from putting faith into action.
