You may remember my earlier post in which I encouraged you to get into the season of giving and gift someone with a life changing gift.

Well, my gifts have arrived! I bought an entire village (in a way…). I guess you could call it the multi-pack, but that sounds wrong when you’re talking about charitable giving.

At the risk of this turning into The 12 days of Christmas, I’ll take you through one part of the village at a time. Don’t worry, you won’t have to sing them all back in reverse order at the end of the posts.

The gift of a business gives people a purpose in life; a reason to get up in the morning.

It tells them they have something to offer to society in general and that they themselves, can contribute to the betterment of their community. In particular, for women, it allows them to be less vulnerable and this is always a good thing to support.

In modern western society, we probably place too much emphasis on work in terms of how it defines us. Yet, for those living in poverty or under resourced places in the world, having a business is a powerful thing.

You can change your life and you can change others.

You can break cycles of a family being under skilled, underpaid and disconnected from each other because all members have to work ridiculous hours to make ends meet. Give someone a business and you give them some control over their future.

That’s actually what Jesus did when he turned up on Earth that very first Christmas.

He changed our lives: He gave us a purpose and a hope.

He broke the cycle: He set us free from sin.

He gave us control: He gave us access to God.

No more are we mere mortals sitting on a spinning planet. We are mortals who can join the family of an immortal God. Emmanuel: God with us.

Yours in village building,

Alison