Dear Friends,
I love Christmas, I always have. The joy, the snow, family coming together, presents, Christmas carols, great food, all of it! When our kids were young, I found that I loved Christmas even more as I experienced it through their eyes. To see their anticipation and excitement, wondering what presents they may get. To get the entire family, grandparents, cousins, aunts, and uncles together. I love it all.
Most importantly, I love the reason for the season. Celebrating the birth of a baby, the Savior of the world! Christmas is a time where hope seems real and possible again. I can remember watching our kids when they were young singing “Away in a Manger” and doing all the motions. To this day my favorite thing is going to a Christmas Eve church service and ending it in a large church sanctuary with only the light of candles as we all sing “Silent Night.”
What breaks my heart is knowing that so many kids and families do not experience these things. They are living in extreme poverty, unhoused, living in shelters or the back seats of cars wondering how this happened and how to get out. For the kids, all they know is that the stories and anticipation their friends share at school are not for them. They don’t have a home, or extended family. No presents, no carols, no parties.
Jesus knew about these feelings. He was born in a barn because there was no room for him and his family in any homes. His family had to flee their home country for their safety and go to a land foreign to them. Jesus in his adult ministry even said he had no place to lay his head. Jesus knows how we feel and how these kids and their families experiencing homelessness feel.
I am honored to be a part of a ministry that serves families and children. Because of your support, families at DRM will know some joy. There will be presents, great food, carols, and laughter. They will have a place that is clean to lie down at night. It is not the home they want, but it is a step toward that home.
Most importantly, those families will hear and experience the reasons for the season, the story and hope of a Savior born and sent to us. These kids will feel a little more like kids during the best time of the year to be kids!
Life change happens every single day in and through DRM. You make that possible. We could not do it without you! Because of you, this Christmas, families who seemingly have so little will celebrate Christmas together with the hope that next year they truly will be home, in their own home, for Christmas!
Grace and peace,
Dennis Van Kampen
President/CEO
This post is part of December’s Changing Lives Newsletter. This month, we’re sharing how the Mission’s emergency shelter gave LaDasmine and his family a fresh start in: A Season of Peace.
