Backpackmission

Our excitement is growing as we prepare to deliver Christmas gifts and food boxes to the children and their families to celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. It has become the most exciting time of the year for me once again, as it was when I was a child. Before working with the children in the mountains I had gotten far away from the true meaning of Christmas and the reason that we celebrate. It is so easy to get caught up in the normal, fast paced activities that surround us during the holidays. The lists of ‘need to dos’ seem to grow each year and we realize that the obligations have gotten out of hand once again. Yet we feel stuck in the same pattern year after year.

This week I received a call from a man who said, “I’ve had enough and I am determined to do something different this year. So at Thanksgiving dinner I announced to my family that the money I would normally be spending on gifts that they do not need, would be donated to someone who needs it. One of my family members said, ‘what about hungry children’, and I said tell me more. She told me about your Backpack program and I am calling you to find out how to help the children.” He is once again excited about Christmas.

Since school started in the fall we have received more and more calls from teachers asking us to help their children. The needs are overwhelming. The jobless rates always hit hardest in the already poverty stricken areas and the children are the first to feel the pain. Every month the need for food increases.

As winter temperatures dip and the cost of heating fuel rises, the ability to buy food decreases. When one of our schools was closed recently due to the flu, mothers called the principal and asked would the kids still be getting their Backpack food that week. They said they cannot feed their children without that food. Fortunately, that school has an incredibly kind principal. He arranged for the bus drivers to deliver the food to the children’s homes.

This is proof positive once again that the Backpack food is vital to these families and without it the children do go hungry. It is with renewed determination that we send out this newsletter asking for your help. The number of children in need of food is growing. They may not have the best clothes or a great house filled with furniture but our belief remains the same……

NOT ONE CHILD SHOULD GO TO BED HUNGRY…..ESPECIALLY WHEN WE KNOW THAT THEY NEED US.

Please keep CHRIST in CHRISTMAS by helping us feed the children and give them the knowledge that someone cares for them. We CAN make a difference in their lives.

I pray your Christmas is filled with wonder and joy and that you are blessed beyond measure. “Give and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.” Jesus’ words in Luke 6:38

Thank you for glorifying HIS name by feeding hungry children.

In His love,

Diane Durham
BACKPACK MISSION MINISTRIES, INC.
6657 Valleypark Drive
Nashville, TN 37221
615-943-2760
Website: www.backpackmission.com
Email: backpackmission@att.net