Stories of Kindness from Around the World

This year for christmas we decided to do something different, and many of our family members have signed on as well.

We decided we'll each donate our Christmas shopping (and wrapping!) budgets to a charity or something similar, then we'll all get together at Christmas time, have stockings and yummy treats and dinner and family time, and share what we were able to achieve with the money. We'll ask others to refrain from buying us gifts, donating the money they would have spent as they choose, if they choose. It's a bold experiment for a bunch of consumer-happy U.S. citizens, but we're commited.

We sponsor a young girl in the Philippines. Her name is Mary Joy, and she's now 16. She writes often to tell us about her life and family. Recently we got a letter that said she has finished high school and is unable to go on to college as her family can't afford it, so she's at home now doing household work.

I called Children International, the organization through which we sponsor Mary Joy, and asked what it would take to get her into school. The rep told me they would send someone from the field office to Mary Joy's house and find out why she wasn't continuing her education and what she wanted to do. A few weeks later we received a letter telling us that Mary Joy wants to attend Computer Secretarial college, but because her family (including relatives outside the home) are currently paying for her older brother's second year of school, they couldn't afford to send her. Mary Joy's father, they reminded me, works as a laborer for about $3.69 a day. The cost for the first year of school, including uniforms, books, shoes, materials for projects, etc., is just under $1,300.

Merry Christmas to us. We sent a check off two days ago, and Mary Joy will soon find out that she is to enroll in the next semester of college, starting in October.

The feeling of being able to do this great big thing for so small an amount (relatively speaking) is already a great reward. And the rewards will keep coming: our next letter from Mary Joy, the feeling we'll get when we sit with our families at Christmas and share with them what we've been able to do (without even a trip to the mall!), and the continuing knowledge that a young, intelligent girl has an opportunity she wouldn't have otherwise because we broke an old habit and created a new one -- already this spirit of giving is far more rewarding than any Christmas joy I can remember feeling since I was very young.

Read more about Mary Joy.