Your Tax Deductible Year End Gift Can Change the Life of a Child......

Friends,

Here's hoping you had a wonderful Christmas and are looking forward to the new year!

A quick thank you to those who were involved in our Christmas Campaign! We also wanted to extend an invitation to consider our work as you are thinking of your year-end tax deductible gifts. As as we looked at the number of children and local leaders we have been honored to work with this year, we were humbled:

~ We have been involved in 6 teams in Uganda, Congo, Haiti, and Togo

~ Provided art therapy and our trauma workshop to over 600 war-affected children, former child soldiers, or those orphaned in Haiti.

~ By the end of this year, we will have supported or provided 4 trauma trainings to over 300 local

leaders on the ground.

~ In addition to providing art therapy workshops to the children, we also support weekly rehabilitation counseling by local leaders in our two partnering orphanages in Gulu, Uganda and Goma, Congo.

~ As a part of our advocacy work, we are proud to have walked with some wonderful teammates in Washington D.C. to bring the voices of these children to Congress as we saw the passing of the LRA Disarmament and Nothern Uganda Recovery Act that President Obama recently signed into law.

We could not have done this without you! As we go forward with our work in Action, Awareness, and Advocay, we would love to invite you to be a part of this. Our wish for them is not just to be survivors of war, but to watch God use their past pains to be the future leaders of peace for tomorrow. We believe in that. We believe in them. Watch our latest video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJ4HSnLf-P8. You may give gifts here http://www.exileinternational.org/sing (click on "One Time Donation")

Donations can also be mailed to: 5123 Virginia Way st b - 11 Brentwood, TN 37027.

Thankful for your support,

The eXile team

http://www.exileinternational.org/

~Feel free to pass this along to friends or re-post~

eXile international, inc is officially incorporated as a non-profit organization and is recognized by the IRS as a 501(c)(3) Corporation. All donations are 100% tax deductible.

It's Magic

"Dear God, help Santa to like his Christmas cookies and his milk, and help him not come into my room tonight and scare me." Julia's prayer after she had written her second or third note to him. And after I got a picture text from my brother displaying bowls of magic oats that Emma had set out for each reindeer. Yes - Nine of them. All personalized as to not have Dancer eating Dashers glistening late night snack. Tragedy that would be : )

It's Christmas Eve. The clock just struck midnight. So I guess that actually makes it Christmas Day. Snowflakes are falling. Little girls are sleeping. The house is totally quiet. And I am dreaming - but awake. Very awake. Alive. And Full.

........ of Magic.

I have felt it more this year than others. Even tried to understand it more. What is it about this time of year. Why so magical? Well - for some it honestly isn't magical at all. It's stress and pressure. Remembering lost loved ones. Longing for what one doesn't have. Wishing for what is not. Sometimes it doesn't feel quite like magic. But maybe it's still there somehow. I think it just means that maybe, in those times, we just feel it less.

But it's all around us. If we could just stop and see it. Anticipation. Hope. Life.

You see, It's not about a man with a beard. Or strange little guys with pointy ears. Or lists we are checking 2, 3 or even 7 times. Definitely not about half off sales and free shipping. Not even about white satan sashes or white paper packages tied up with string (though those are definitely a few of my favorites things- especially when Julie Andrews sings about them : ) No, I don't think it's that at all. I think it's about something much more. It's setting aside one time of year to get beyond ourselves - if we choose to. It's about stepping into the magic - if we want. Maybe it's about looking around us to see who is in need. As cheesy as it may sound: What if the magic was actually inside of us the whole time? What if we were the gift? Who in our own circles are lonely? Who is it in our own family that we truly need to extend forgiveness to. Not because they asked. Or because they deserve it. Or even because they are alive to receive it. But because it means living in Peace. Who is the one beside us every day who may just need someone to believe in them a little harder. Or maybe just to listen a little louder.

Living in Peace. P E A C E.

Outside of Redeemer. My favorite name for Jesus was the Prince of Peace. It captures me when I hear it. I search for Him. That Prince. Constantly in search of an inner peace in the midst of an unstable world.

Loving the unlovable. Seeing beauty in the broken. Hoping for the hopeless. Extending blessings to the needy. Looking around and seeing the anticipation of what is to come. That doesn't have to be a gift under the tree. Maybe that's just the gift of the Hope of God's plan for our lives. His divine plan. A plan that works all things together for good and allowing ourselves to get excited about that, rather than fearful. And in the midst of it.....

Looking at Christmas through a child's heart

Waiting on a man in a flying sleigh to do the unthinkable. Believing in him to do the unimaginable. To bring us gifts from around the world because he remembered us. Because he thought of us. Of little us. I believe that's the thought in every little girl and boy tonight. "Me?" "You mean I am important enough that he would come to Me?" "Out of all the boys and girls in the world - he would come and bring me gifts?"

Sounds a lot like a man who did something rather similar - but in a much more magical way. With a divine purpose. And an even deeper unfathomable love with gifts granting golden and forever wishes. More magical than glistening glitter filled oats for flying reindeer. More magical than flying in the sky on a sled. Yeah. The most precious thought to me is that it began with newness. It began at the beginning. A birth. A newness. A Living. Breathing. Hope.

So on this early Christmas Morn. My wish for you is nothing less than that. To be able to look at today with eyes of newness, hope, peace, and love. To see the magic of giving that is surrounding us and the newness that is on the other side of the New Year. Blessings of Love and Kindness on this Mass of Christ with hopes of extending forgiveness, receiving grace, and living in the magic of the anticipation of Hope. From my heart to yours....

His, b

B E L I E V E

There is Magic in the spirit of Christmas.

The A n t i c i p a t i o n of the opening of "The Gift". The unspoken breeze of Kindnessin the air. The child-like F a i t hin something wonderful and mystical and, yes, magical.The spirit of Believing comes to life.

Believing in what some would say isunbelievable. Not because it makes sense all the time. But because simply allowing yourself to believe means coming to Life a bit.

.B E L I E V I N G.

.It is sorely underestimated.

Something drastically changes in a person's heart when someone believes in them. Just those words. Those

Four

simple

words.

"I believe in you"

......creates a spark in the soul. With it can come a newness of living.......

NEVER underestimate the power of believing in someone. And NEVER forget that God is the ultimate Believer. in. you.

Regardless of what has been done. He desperately believes in you.

____________________________

.This is what we tell the children we work with through eXile international

Children

who have lived in W A R all of their lives.

Children who were taken from their homes and made to become rebel soldiers.

Children who were forced to kill after being abducted.

These children are BIGGERthan orphans. They are more than sex slaves. They are kinder than the killers they were forced to become. They are larger than their past.

These Children are

beautiful and

strong and

resilient.

But they need someone to

b e l i e v e

in them.

W i l l y o u ?

http://www.exileinternational.org/t-shirt.html

The purchase of a b e l i e v e t-shirt for only $15 buys two t-shirts! It supports eXile international's work AND we will bring a 2nd "believe T" to one of the children we will be working with on our upcoming trip to Congo as a symbol of hope.

WHY? Because we Believe in them and God Believes in you and by Believing..........we have Hope.

b e l i e v e

http://www.exileinternational.org/t-shirt.html

You may also donate to our work here: http://www.exileinternational.org