Evangelicals Now
<< December 2001 >>

Godly gifts for Christmas?

What can you give as a Christmas present which will be both spiritual, encouraging and enjoyable?

Good question. Here are some suggestions from EN.

Operation World

Top of the list this year must come a copy of the new edition of Operation World, the comprehensive guide to global Christian mission. Picking up our news from British TV, fascinated by pictures of horror and working to a secular Western agenda, we very often have a highly distorted view of what is going on in the world.

Patrick Johnstone's work acts as a fine corrective. The opening section on world trends is worth the cost of the book on its own. It is set out to get people praying round the whole world in one year and it starts in January - so it makes a good Christmas present. £12.99, 713 pages, ISBN 1 85078 357 8. For the more booted-up Christian, there is a computer CD version (£12.99).

Love in a Box

If the recipient of your Christmas gift is more of an up and doing person than a prayer warrior, then Emma Carswell's excellent book Love in a Box might be just the thing. It tells the story of Dave Cooke, who left school at 14 with his headmaster's words ringing in his ears, 'Cooke, you'll never achieve anything. You're a waster.' It was this man who God used to begin Operation Christmas Child, sending shoe boxes of aid to youngsters in many poor and war-torn parts of the world. Starting with the terrible Romanian orphanages first visited in the early 1990s, it is full of photo-graphs and reports from many places. It is a book to touch the heart and wet the eyes. £9.99, 192 pages, ISBN 1 85078 366 7.

Christmas Praise

But perhaps your friend or relative is not the reading type. Then how about a pre-Christmas present of a night out? Noel Tredinnick and the All Souls Orchestra, along with Graham Kendrick, are putting on the Christmas Praise concert at Westminster Central Hall in London on Saturday December 8 at 7.30 pm. It is likely to be a very joyful and uplifting experience. Tickets at various prices are available from Langham Arts, telephone 020 7935 7246.

Christmas Unpacked

Another great pre-Christmas idea, is to give Christmas Unpacked, the first of a series of Family Bible reading aids from The Good Book Company. It combines Bible notes on the Christmas story for 7-11s with suggestions for daily family devotions to be used in the three-week run-up to Christmas. It's full colour, includes stickers for the kids, and costs £4.00. Order direct on 020 8942 0880.

Lastly, I was digging around in HMV recently and there in the sale was a new edition of a CD of the Church Music of Orlando Gibbons, sung by the Clerkes of Oxenford, director David Wulstan. Well, I admit that early 17th-century praise may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I like it and it was a snip at £4.99. It includes the seasonal 'See, see, the word is incarnate - The law is cancelled, Jews and Gentiles made compatible... Come let us welcome such a guest.' It is on the Calliope label, CAL 3611.

However, having said all this, it is true that the best gifts at Christmas (or any other time) are gifts given to the needy and to support Christian mission. It was in this context that Paul reminded us that Jesus said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive' (Acts 20.35).

JEB
John Benton