Christmas is the season of hope, joy, love, peace and, of course, giving. After all, Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus, and what’s a birthday celebration without a few presents?
When we think about what Jesus would really want for His birthday, giving to those less fortunate than ourselves would certainly top the list. In this spirit of Christmas, Birmingham Baptist Association (BBA) began Season of Our Savior, an annual event that enables BBA’s 125 member churches — as well as other individuals and organizations — to help make Christmas merry for Birmingham residents in need.
Initiated about 15 years ago, Season of Our Savior involves collecting stuffed stockings and cakes from churches and other groups to then pass along to various Birmingham agencies. They generally receive around 2,000 stockings and 500 cakes of any variety. The stockings are passed along to children as gifts, and the cakes are used for Christmas celebrations.
“Each stocking is made for a child of a specific age, from birth through teenager,” said Linda Pair of BBA. “For some children, this is all they will get for Christmas, so that makes it extra special.”
Each local agency contacts BBA and lets them know how many cakes and stockings they anticipate needing each year, and then BBA volunteers stuff the stockings and fill the orders. Stocking stuffers can be anything from coloring books, puzzles and stickers for the younger kids to headphones, lip gloss and books for teens. Lately, said Pair, more and more requests have been coming in for teenage-focused stockings.
Agencies benefiting from Season of our Savior include organizations that house women and children, homeless shelters, the Meals on Wheels program and local soup kitchens. A few men’s shelters are also involved, so that the men receive stockings they can pass along to their children or grandchildren.
One such agency is the Ministry Center at Green Springs, which hosts a yearly Christmas party for the children of the food bank participants. This year, the party will consist of 73 families with a total of 140 children, all of whom will receive stockings from Season of Our Savior.
“Season of Our Savior has helped us out for the last five or six years, and we couldn’t have this celebration without it,” said Ray Flynn, director of the Ministry Center at Green Springs. “The BBA has been great to work with, and they are always extremely fair with their distribution.”
Pair emphasizes that anyone can become involved in this outreach, and extra donations are always needed.
“This is certainly a community effort, and we like to partner with different people and denominations to really make Season of Our Savior a success,” said Pair.
To Flynn, the stockings seem to be a gift to the donors just as much as to the children and teens who receive them.
“The stockings are, of course, real delights to the children, but the church members and others who put the stockings together also get joy from it,” Flynn said. “It seems like it benefits all the way around.”
For more information about Season of Our Savior, visit www.bbaonline.org (link is on the right-hand side under calendar) or call 205-599-3245.
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