Montverde, Florida

I am honored to be able to lead a Middle/High School Girls small group with our churches Youth Group. A couple of years ago, I brought a masion jar to one of our weekly meetings and told the girls about the Christmas Jar story and how it impacts not only the receiver but also the givers. I asked them if they were interested, to bring in spare change each week until the jar was filled and to be thinking of someone in their community that we could anonymously give this full jar to.

The girls jumped into this oportunity. It took us a while to fill the jar and pretty soon Christmas came and went, but we kept filling the jar little by little each week.

Finally, in spring, the jar was full, the girls wrote encouraging notes and buried them in the jar, decorated the jar with fun duct tape and chose a family that had a daughter in their school and neighborhood that was struggling with some major medical issues. We picked a day when we could tell that the family was not home and 2 of the girls ran to the door with the jar, dropped it off and ran back to my car. They were so excited to do this project.

We don’t know the reaction of the family or what they did with the money, but I know the girls really embraced the project and now have a nice big full jar ready for the next chosen family.

Last night in small group, the girls wrote encouraging notes to put in the jar and we will be delivering it during Thanksgiving instead of Christmas. The girls thought it would be a great time to give a gift that is a time of thanks because they are thankful that they have an oportunity to be a blessing to someone else.

We have already started our next jar…..