Earlier this month Mike and I experienced an annual highlight of our year: the EA Christmas party at our offices in Santo Domingo.

Joined by 25 of our staff and key volunteers we engaged in a number of activities:

1. Worshiping together

2. Praising God for Christmas, by praying through Joel Beeke’s Why Christ Came: 31 Reasons for the Incarnation

3. Celebrating 5 years of service by Jose Lorenzo, noting 2 Benefits of Longevity in Ministry from the life of Paul: You can see God’s Work over time (Acts 13:15-26) and God can increase the effectiveness of your work (1 Thess. 2:10-11)

4. Studying together 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12, noting what Paul prayed for the Church of Thessalonica: Worthiness, Fulfillment and Power, and motivated by Robert Murray M’Cheyne’s admonition that “what the people in our lives need most from us is our personal holiness.”

5. And finally thanking God for what He had graciously accomplished within and through EA in the past year, and Asking for His continued provision in the year to come.

I got quite a chuckle when I shared this picture above, explaining that the End-of-Year Feeding Frenzy in the states, at times, felt to me like a battle for survival, as non-profits, churches and charities fight for limited resources, capitalizing on charitable holiday spirit and strategic tax deductions.

I explained that, beginning with Giving Tuesday and culminating with 11:59pm New Year’s Eve, citizens are besieged constantly with requests for year-end donations, as December alone can account for 30% of annual giving, and the last three days of December on average accounts for 10% of a non-profits income.

They laughed at my attempt at humor, which doesn’t always translate into Spanish well.

But I went on to explain that, while I joke about feeling that way, there were a few core beliefs that determine my perspective on year-end giving:

1. God owns a cattle on a thousand hills (Ps. 50:10) and does not have a limited budget

2. The Lord says, “He who honors me, I will honor…” (1 Samuel 2:30), so our focus needs to remain seeking first the advancement of the Kingdom of God (Matt. 6:33) and trusting God to “supply all our needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 4:19)

3. However, we want to encourage the spiritual discipline of charitable stewardship, as “Generosity is God’s gift to all of us, rich or poor, and participating in God’s work is a gift that shouldn’t be denied to anybody.”*

4. When Jesus stated in Matthew 6:21, “Where your heart is, there your treasure will be also,” he was not merely offering us a thermometer to measure the temperature of our hearts, but also a thermostat to change the temperature of our hearts. Therefore, anything we can do to foster a biblical worldview of possessions and giving should be encouraged. *

So we ended our time praising God for our current year-end Matching Campaign and…praying the same scripture passages we have prayed for the past 6 years:

– “Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.” (Prov. 30:8-9)

– “Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children. Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!” (Psalm 90:16-17)

 

* Source:Practicing the King’s Economy: Honoring Jesus in How We Work, Earn, Spend, Save, and Give