Children's Gift Catalogue

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The Piano Teacher’s Letter

Read a letter written to World Renew about the blessing of giving.

God Loves a Cheerful Giver

Explore why giving animals can make the giver and receiver happy.

The Seeds of Kindness Grow

Discover how a community garden grew more than just vegetables.

Temples of God

Learn how you can make a difference to the health of a family.

In Search of Water

How many people around the world do not have access to clean water?

A Very Special Christmas Tree

Discover what was special about the Christmas tree at Woodland Christian High School.

FUNdraising Ideas

Explore exciting ways to work together to share Christ’s hope.

THE PIANO TEACHER’S LETTER

You have probably heard a teacher or two say, “Sharing is caring.” The following is a letter written by a piano teacher to World Renew that demonstrates the joy of sharing. While she would like us to keep her name private, she gave us permission to share the letter.

Dear friends at World Renew,

This is just a quick note to let you know how much I appreciate the Gift Catalogue.

I’m a piano teacher living in Canada and for 10 years now, I’ve been buying items from your catalogue for my students. It can be tricky trying to figure out what the kids want, because they have their personal taste. Besides, young people here in Canada have so much and when they need something, they don’t wait for a birthday or holiday! They just get it. But when I buy them an item from the World Renew Gift Catalogue, they love that feeling of receiving gifts and I don’t have to guess what they might want! The added bonus is that we both get to feel like we’re helping. I’ve been giving animals because my students all have pets. They love receiving rabbits, chickens, and goats. This is my simple way of sharing what God has given me.

I’d given a chicken on behalf of one little girl and when she found out she said, “Wow! That means I got to give this gift to someone!” This is something we can do to reach beyond our own backyards. God placed this idea on my heart. I’m blessed to be a blessing to others, and this is one way we can do that.

Sincerely,

An Anonymous Piano Teacher

GOD LOVES A CHEERFUL GIVER

“Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”

- 2 Corinthians 9:7

The Bible tells us that when you share with someone you should do so because you really want to and because you really care about that person. Giving should make us happy. The piano teacher felt blessed to be able to give gifts from the World Renew Gift Catalogue.

Around the world there are families who go to bed hungry every night because they are not able to grow or buy food. When you think about hungry families, it might make you sad. But know that God created enough food for every single

person on this planet. He wants us to work together, help one another, and share what we have. When we share, we should be happy because we are helping God to return our world to the place of joy that he created it to be — a place where no one goes hungry,

The piano teacher said animals are her favourite gifts to give. Read up on why these animals can make a difference in the lives of people who struggle to have enough to eat, and then ask your family to join you in saying the prayer for the hungry.

Prayer for the Hungry Prayer for the Hungry

Heavenly Father, thank you for the wheat that we use to make bread. Thank you for the vegetation and the animals that provide the vitamins and nutrients we need to stay healthy. Father, you provide more than enough for each and every one of your children, but so many still go hungry. We ask that the hungry be fed. Open the hearts of all your people to share your generous bounty. Grant wisdom to global leaders that they work on ways to care for the earth and to ensure fair distribution of the earth’s resources.

Amen.

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Most duck eggs are larger than chicken eggs, with big yolks that make them great to use for baked goods like bread! They’re also delicious and nutritious on their own! A family that raises ducks can sell these big eggs and then use the money to pay for a doctor’s visit or construction on their house. Even a duck’s droppings are helpful–they can be used on a farmer’s field to help crops grow better.

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duck piglet

Piglets grow and become pigs that can weigh as much as 250 pounds in just six months...wow! Because they grow so quickly, piglets make great gifts for a family struggling to buy food. Your gift of a piglet helps change a family’s story from not having enough food to: this little piggy grew quickly then the family went to market and sold it to buy food.

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rabbit goat

Soft, cuddly bunnies are super cute! They reproduce quickly. A doe (female rabbit) can have four litters of babies, called “kittens,” a year. Rabbits also produce a lot of manure which is excellent for helping keep soil fertile. One doe and her offspring can produce an entire ton of manure in a single year! Families can sell the manure to earn extra money to buy food and to make improvements to their homes.

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THE SEEDS OF KINDNESS GROW

Mariama lives in Senegal with her family. They often did not have enough to eat. Mariama’s mother, Fama, cried whenever she had no food to feed her children. Mariama felt really sad when her mother cried. Then World Renew began to teach Fama and other women in her community about growing vegetables.

The women worked hard to start a community garden. When the garden began to produce, Fama got to bring home vegetables to Mariama and the rest of their family. In time, the community garden produced so much the women had more than enough for their families, so they began to sell what was left. They then started saving the money they made selling vegetables. They used some of their savings to help others in their community. For example, they helped to provide for the medical needs of pregnant women who could not afford proper health care, and they were even able to help get electricity installed in their community.

“The people in the village are happy with us. They said that they have never seen such solidarity,” said Fama. “Our garden has helped the village considerably, and we are really proud of it. We thank the donors and pray to God to grant us the means to develop additional sources of income.”

Mariama is very proud of her mother. She is happy that her family has food to eat at every meal and that Fama no longer cries because she has nothing to feed her children.

Do you see how the seeds of kindness grew? Yes, generous people gave to World Renew and World Renew used their gifts to help Fama and the women in her community start the garden. Then, Fama and the women extended that kindness by helping their community. Isn’t the contagiousness of kindness wonderful!

Did You Know:

Did You Know:

Did you know that yawns can be contagious? Some people only have to hear or see someone else yawning and they feel compelled to yawn too. Do you know what else is contagious? Kindness!

plant a tree kitchen garden

There’s a saying that money doesn’t grow on trees...but fruit trees can be a wonderful way for a family to make money and also have healthy food to eat. Different trees can produce all kinds of different fruit – mango, papaya, guava...the list goes on! Giving a farmer the gift of a sapling (a baby tree) gives them and their family fruit they can eat. They can also sell the fruit and with the money they can buy food and medicine.

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A kitchen garden provides a family with nutritious vegetables right outside their door. When space is tight, a sack garden is a great way to add fresh produce to meals and cooking. Give a kitchen garden kit that includes 5 sacks and 5 seed packets to grow food for good health. Just add water and sunshine!

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children’s books for mobile library

Teaching families how to grow food is an important part of helping them have enough to eat. God encourages us to learn, so we can better understand the Bible. And reading is a good way to learn. When you give the gift of books for a mobile library, you help children learn! This gift also helps children build good reading habits that will influence their learning journey all through their lives. Parents and grandparents also learn to spend time with children to improve their skills and their love of books.

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TEMPLES OF GOD

Our heavenly Father calls our bodies temples of God (see 1 Corinthians 3:16–17; 6:19–20). Our bodies are holy and God knows that we can be happier, stronger people if we are healthy. So, he wants us to take good care of our bodies. How do we take care of our bodies? Getting enough sleep helps. Exercise. Water. And, yes, eating healthy foods, like fish, chicken, eggs, and fruits and vegetables! We can also take vitamins to help ensure our bodies are getting all the nutrients needed to stay healthy and strong.

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vitamins

When children do not get enough to eat, they can become malnourished and this in turn can cause their growth to be stunted. Your gift of vitamins for a child who is struggling to eat enough nutritious food for proper growth provides the nutrients they need to get back on the path to good health. Supplementing a child’s diet with the vitamins and minerals they need to grow now helps build good health for a lifetime.

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Prayer

Dear Lord. Thank you for creating my body so wonderfully. You created every vein, every bone, every muscle to work together to keep me alive. How wonderful and amazing my body is! Father, help me to eat right, to get enough sleep, and to take care of my body. Please help your children around the world who do not get enough food and water. Heal their bodies and open doorways so they can access the health care, food, and all they need to stay healthy.

Fun Facts About Fish:

• There are over 30,000 different species of fish.

• Fish use acoustic sounds to talk to each other.

• Most fish cannot swim backwards.

• The Greek word for fish is Ichthys, which is an acronym for “Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Saviour” and was used to mark early Christian tombs and meeting places.

• The slowest fish is a seahorse. It swims so slowly that a person can barely tell it is moving. The seahorse is also the only fish that swims upright.

• The biggest fish in the world is the giant whale shark. It can grow to over 18 metres, or the length of two school buses.

DO YOU KNOW THE STORY

of how Jesus took two fish and five loaves of bread and fed a crowd of 5,000? A young boy gave Jesus the fish and bread. That boy saw how by sharing, you can do so much. Ask your family to sit together and read John 6: 1-12.

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pond for fish

Fish is filled with omega-3 fatty acids and vitamins such as D and B2 (riboflavin). Fish is rich in calcium and phosphorus and is a great source of minerals, such as iron, zinc, iodine, magnesium, and potassium. When you give a family the gift of a fishpond you give them easy access to vitaminrich fish for their meals that can help improve their health. Some families sell cooked fish and others sell fresh fish at the local market to earn extra income to buy hygiene products, medicine, and other essentials.

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IN SEARCH OF WATER

Water is also very important for keeping our bodies healthy. We don’t only need water to drink, but we need it to hydrate the plants and animals that become our food, for cooking, and for keeping ourselves clean. It might be difficult to imagine that there are people who cannot simply turn on a tap and have clean water flow out, but sadly, that is the reality for an estimated 2 billion people around the world. That is a lot of people who do not have access to clean and safe drinking water! So where do they get their water? Many of them walk really long distances in search of streams and water ways, then they have to walk back to their homes carrying heavy containers filled with the water they collect. But quite often that water is dirty.

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handwashing station family-sized water filter

What do you think would happen if you drank dirty water? What about if you ate food cooked with dirty water? Yes, you could get very sick! There are kids around the world who get sick often because their families don’t have an easy way to get clean water. The gift of a family-sized water filter helps ensure a family has clean water for drinking and cooking so they can stay healthy!

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Have you ever washed your hands with your...feet? That might sound strange, but this handwashing station is powered by a pedal pushed down by a person’s foot! Sometimes hands can carry germs that make us sick, so a foot-powered station is an extra clean and safe way to wash up and stop germs from spreading. It’s also simple to build and super easy for anyone to use.

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There are different ways that World Renew helps communities access clean water. One way is digging wells. Another way is teaching them to boil their water and use water purification tablets. Read about two other ways you can help World Renew help families to access water, then play the word search game and find all the water-related words.

You can find the answers on the next page.

A VERY SPECIAL CHRISTMAS TREE

Last year, the kids at Woodland Christian High School in Breslau, Ontario, put up a very special Christmas tree in their school auditorium. But before they put up the tree, some of the kids got together to decide what they would do to help people in their community or around the world for Christmas. You see, the kids at Woodland have a tradition of raising funds every year at Christmas to put towards an act of kindness. For Christmas 2022, they decided to raise funds for purchasing gifts from the World Renew Gift Catalogue.

Evan Van Dyk, a Grade 11 student, suggested supporting the World Renew Gift Catalogue. He had seen the story of Redeemer University in the Gift Catalogue the year before and shared how the students there used a Christmas tree to motivate giving. Everyone was excited to try this idea.

For every $20 a class raised, they got to put an ornament on the Christmas tree. The students were excited to see the branches get weighed down with more and more decorations as the days went by. The more decorations there were, the more they had to purchase gifts from World Renew’s Gift Catalogue. To motivate the students even more, the staff at the school promised a pizza party for the class that raised the most money. In the end, the students raised $4,161.38. And the class that won the pizza party decided to add the money for the pizza party to the total that the school was sending to World Renew. Now, every time they see a Christmas tree, Evan and the other students at Woodland Christian High will remember the year they decorated a Christmas tree and shared God’s love with people around the world.

Fun Fact:

Do you know when the first Christmas tree was put up? Historians claim that the first Christmas trees were put up back in the 16th century in Germany. Families put up their trees on December 24th and used candles as decorations. They saw the candles as symbolic of Jesus Christ as the light of the world.

FUNdraising Ideas

“Do not forget to show hospitality... for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.” - Hebrews 13:2

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refugee resettlement

A fun way to help World Renew and sponsoring groups welcome newcomers is by getting your school to do the Christmas Tree Challenge like the Woodland Christian High School did. Put up your special Christmas Tree in a place that everyone can see it. For every $32 a class raises, they get to put an ornament on the Christmas tree. See how many ornaments your school collects!

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In some countries around the world there are scary situations like war and violence that families need to get away from. Many of these families leave their homes behind, taking very little with them. They might have some food, a little money, and perhaps a bag with clothing. They often travel long distances and end up living in another country where they struggle to find jobs, a place to live, and even food. These people who flee dangerous situations in their own country to find safety in another country are called refugees. Here in Canada, there are people who answer God’s call to welcome foreigners by sponsoring refugees. That means they help cover the costs of having the refugee come to live in Canada. The sponsor also helps the refugee to find a home, a job, and to get accustomed to life in Canada. Sponsorship can be expensive and often groups of people or members of churches work together to sponsor refugees.

World Renew is a Sponsorship Agreement Holder (SAH) with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). That means we can help people who want to become sponsoring groups follow all the procedures they need to follow so that everything goes smoothly in getting refugees settled in Canada.

This year there’s an item in Gift Catalogue that helps World Renew to help sponsors. Through this gift you become part of the story of welcoming newcomers to Canada.

Fill up the glitter Box Challenge

Another fun way you can get your entire school involved in raising money to welcome newcomers or to purchase items in World Renew’s Gift Catalogue is the Glitter Box Challenge. Each class decorates a shoebox with glitter and other fun craft items. Cut out a slot in the lid of the box, then glue the lid of the box to the body of the box. Now start collecting money to put into the box. Decide on a day that everyone will open their box, and on that day see which class collects the most money and which class has the most fun glitter box.

With World Renew’s Refugee Sponsorship and Resettlement Team, the Georgetown CRC sponsored brothers Kidane and Ambes who fled from Eritrea. The grade 5 and 6 classes at the Halton Hills Christian school raised over $10,000 to give to the Georgetown CRC sponsorship committee to help get Kidane and Ambes settled in Canada.

Thank you for purchasing gifts from World Renew’s Gift Catalogue to help families around the world struggling with hunger, poverty, and injustice.

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Make out your cheque and mail it with your order form to: World