{"id":1677,"date":"2018-11-29T14:14:43","date_gmt":"2018-11-29T14:14:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.risen.org.uk\/?p=1677"},"modified":"2018-11-29T14:14:43","modified_gmt":"2018-11-29T14:14:43","slug":"blog-november-29th-christmas-presents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/?p=1677","title":{"rendered":"Blog November 29th \u201cChristmas Presents\u201c"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"It&#039;s time to ban unnecessary Christmas presents\" width=\"625\" height=\"352\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KIXFSnNe_wQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-1677-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/www.risen.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/01-Track-01-40.m4a?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/www.risen.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/01-Track-01-40.m4a\">http:\/\/www.risen.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/01-Track-01-40.m4a<\/a><\/audio>\n<p>Heart on Fire from the album &#8220;How Great Are His Signs&#8221; featuring the Portsmouth Gospel Choir recorded and produced by Joffy Girling<\/p>\n<p>My wife Caroline and I were discussing what to do about Christmas presents this year &#8211; in particular how to broach the subject with some family members of how the money we all spend could be put to much better use -by giving it to those people that really need it.\u00a0 We decided the time had come to end buying a family member a bottle of wine or pair of socks and getting something of similar value in return.<\/p>\n<p>We knew this was the right thing to do but was not sure how to approach the subject as we felt some might not agree with our sentiments.\u00a0 Now it may have been a coincidence or more likely a \u201cGodinstance\u201d but we just happened to watch a Martin Lewis Money Expert programme on TV in which Martin referred to a plea he had made some years earlier \u201cIt\u2019s time to ban unnecessary Christmas presents. \u201d This is this week\u2019s featured video clip.<\/p>\n<p>So we included the clip in a message we emailed to those \u00a0family members who were foremost in our mind and lo and beyond they all agreed to our suggestion! So now instead of unwanted socks and scarves we will be donating the monies saved to \u201cCrisis at Christmas.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crisis.org.uk\/get-involved\/reserve-a-place-at-crisis-at-christmas\/\">https:\/\/www.crisis.org.uk\/get-involved\/reserve-a-place-at-crisis-at-christmas\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>So for every \u00a328.18 donated a homeless person\u00a0 receives:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A warm welcome and good company<\/li>\n<li>Three nutritious, hot meals daily, including a delicious Christmas dinner<\/li>\n<li>A bed for the night, if needed<\/li>\n<li>A chance to shower, freshen up and get clean clothes<\/li>\n<li>A health check and treatment from a doctor, optician and dentist<\/li>\n<li>Expert help with mental health and addiction problems<\/li>\n<li>Advice on housing, employment and benefits<\/li>\n<li>A way out of homelessness for good through Crisis\u2019 year-round training, education and support.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Of course \u201cCrisis at Christmas\u201d is not the only charity which needs support- The Salvation Army also has a campaign by which you can donate, for example \u00a319.00 which will provide for a box filled with food and modest gifts for a family in need -https:\/\/www.salvationarmy.org.uk\/donate<\/p>\n<p>One of our family members is donating the saved Christmas present money to the Alzheimer\u2019s Society- the point it that it really is time to change &#8211; in addition to the good it does \u00a0&#8211; donating monies to good causes that otherwise would be spent\u00a0 on worthless presents &#8211; what Martin Lewis calls \u201ctat\u201d- \u00a0really is liberating.<\/p>\n<p>Quote of the week<\/p>\n<p>If you want to go fast go alone if you want to go far go together<\/p>\n<p>African proverb<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Heart on Fire from the album &#8220;How Great Are His Signs&#8221; featuring the Portsmouth Gospel Choir recorded and produced by Joffy Girling My wife Caroline and I were discussing what to do about Christmas presents this year &#8211; in particular how to broach the subject with some family members of how the money we all [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ken-shearsmiths-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1677"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1679,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1677\/revisions\/1679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}