Well, I have just gotten back from my few days away in Pigeon Forge. Once again, visiting the Christmas shops and hearing the Christmas music has put me in the Christmas spirit. It is hard to believe that 2023 is almost half over and Christmas is only six months away.
Have you begun your Christmas shopping? Better yet, are you planning to bless Kentucky children through the KBC Christmas Backpack Initiative again this year? If so, it is time to start planning, promoting, and collecting items for those backpacks. For Christmas Backpacks we are less than five months away, as they are due to be delivered to the local Baptist Association collection sites October 23-27, and to the Regional Collection sites October 30 – November 3.
Instructions for filling the backpacks can be found at www.kybaptist.org/backpacks. Once there, you can download a promotional bulletin insert, poster, PowerPoint slide, and the “Christmas Story” leaflet. Be sure to include the leaflet in each backpack that you fill.
Please remember to register your backpacks and perhaps consider partnering with a specific ministry. You may want to take the backpacks directly to the ministry and help with the distribution. It is so special to see the children’s faces light up as they open the backpack, and to experience them hearing the true Christmas Story and a gospel message. This is what Christmas is all about.
Statistics show that 35% of Kentucky’s children live in single-parent homes, and a backpack from Kentucky Baptists may be all they get for Christmas. Many of the backpacks collected will be distributed directly to children living in poverty in Kentucky, while others will go to needy children in our partner SEND City, Cincinnati.
Kentucky Baptist churches are partnering together to reach a goal of 10,000 backpacks to fill requests coming in from our missionaries, churches, and associations. While we will receive requests for far more than that, we are thankful for partnering state convention churches that help to meet the need.
And we are thankful for Kentucky Baptists and your part in this annual initiative. Pray with us that not only will the children receive a nice Christmas gift and hear a gospel presentation, but that many will come to know Christ as their personal Savior and receive the GREATEST GIFT this Christmas season.
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