Thank you to so many of you who have supported me and the mission here in Cambodia in the past through financial donations at Christmas time. This year you have an opportunity to help spread the word and give others a chance to “buy a cow” in honor of a friend or loved one as an alternative to a material gift. It might seem early, but now is the time to start planning. Would you consider hosting an Alternative Giving Bazaar with your church, UMW unit or other group?
Available now for download on the CHAD program blog is everything that you will need in order to set up and host a bazaar. Check out the post “A Coordinators Guide” to get an overview of what this entails (a more detailed guide will be up later today). There is a catalog to learn about different gift choices, Powerpoint slides to use during worship, bulletin inserts with a space to customize to your local group/church, posters, order forms with how to correctly designate gifts, and greeting card inserts to explain to your loved one about the gift they are receiving all available for download.
Contact me and Amanda King (use altgiving.mmc@gmail.com) with questions, for information or for affordable recommendations about how to print the catalog and other materials.
We work in partnership with The Advance, the designated giving arm of the United Methodist Church. They cover all of the administrative and banking fees in order to ensure that 100% of your gift reaches us here in Cambodia in order to facilitate these ministries. (Ask me if you want to know more about how to track gifts and financial accountability.) But it is about more than money – it is about partnership and communication. Get everyone involved such as by asking the Sunday School kids make hand-made cards to go with each gift.
Please do write back and let us know what you are doing or if there are any additional pieces of information that would be helpful. Don’t forget that there are quite a few videos on our YouTube channel: mmcambodia that tell the story of how your gifts are impacting lives here in Cambodia.
Also up on the CHAD program blog today is information about how you can help with the relief effort for the flooding along the Mekong. I've posted several personal reflections on my own blog recently as well.