Christmas: 2011. Anacortes Christian Church joined thousands of other churches in rethinking Christmas for the third year. We challenged each other to truly consider the meaning behind the Advent Season. Does the way we celebrate Christmas in our culture truly allow us to experience the full impact of Christ’s coming, with all its implications? We say “No.”
In 2008, we joined with Advent Conspiracy in order to rethink Christmas. We challenged one another to make it a meaningful, worshipful time. The Challenge: Spend less – even if it’s just one less gift, resist the urge to buy as many consumer products, and instead, make something meaningful, or give your time and presence to another in a relational way.
And with the money saved on that one less gift, we asked our congregation to give towards a fresh water well so that people who lack access to clean drinking water would no longer have to travel long distances for water or risk disease. We partnered with Living Water International – a fantastic organization that specializes in digging fresh water wells, as well as sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ in local communities.
Since 2008, ACC has funded the building of FOUR fresh water wells, providing access to clean water for thousands, and giving the “Living Water” of Christ as well.
This December, we just received the report of the latest well project, funded by ACC’s Advent Conspiracy giving in 2011. The well is now servicing an entire primary school, along with a professional school, health center, and local church. Here are a few comments from our contact at LWI:
- Community members were accessing water from an unprotected source.
- Community members were suffering from cholera, dysentary, typhoid, and malaria (each of which will help to be eradicated with the clean water source).
- 539 students at the school, plus faculty, will be served by the well, along with 400 community members
- This will bring clean water not only to the school, but to the local health clinic and church as well.
Here is a link to download the full report from Living Water International in PDF format: CLICK HERE.
Finally, here is the promo video for Advent Conspiracy. ACC chose not to directly participate in Advent Conspiracy this year, but we encourage everyone to continue to carefully examine how we celebrate Christmas, and highly recommend that families participate with Advent Conspiracy individually as a means to celebrate Christmas in a more meaningful way that enacts the coming of Christ tangibly by loving and serving others.
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