Instead of having a party, Karen Bugg celebrated her 50th birthday by honoring friends with gifts from the Gift Catalog.

When Karen Bugg learned that a Mosquito Net had been given to a child in Africa in her honor for Christmas, she was deeply touched. In fact, she was so inspired, that she asked her family to cancel her 50th birthday party, and instead to use the funds to honor 45 of her closest friends and family with gifts from the catalog. In her customized card announcing each gift, she challenged each recipient to match her gift with one of their own. She also wrote an article for her church newsletter, encouraging others to use the catalog for their own creative gift-giving.

Food for the Hungry Advocate Liz Whitmarsh set off a chain reaction of giving.

As an Advocate for Food for the Hungry, Liz Whitmarsh has encouraged and inspired many to sponsor children. But when she received her Food for the Hungry catalog, she saw a whole new way to get involved. She chose eight items from the catalog to give as Christmas gifts. To her delight, many of those who received gifts went on to give gifts themselves. “Two of my friends decided to use their Christmas budget for catalog gifts and several members of my small group also gave sacrificially to give gifts from the catalog,” she tells us. “My college-attending daughter, Rhian, gave four gifts to family members for Christmas. I was so proud of her and I will treasure the card that she gave me for the rest of my life!”

Holy Yoga and the Christmas Catalog.

As a yoga instructor, Alisa Keeton doesn’t charge participants a fee but puts a basket out for donations. For the past two Decembers, all of the money collected has been given to the gift catalog -- a total of $3,000! She also leaves out the catalog so her “Holy Yoga” class participants can pick one up and donate on their own. In January, Alisa started an eight-week program that promotes healthy living while raising funds for global poverty. The program is called “Weigh Less to Feed More.” So, what can you do with your career? Could you hang a photo from your last mission trip in your office? Set up a display of child sponsorship packets on your desk? Talk about global poverty around the water cooler? Whatever it is, we encourage you to use Alisa’s example to think outside the box!

Running for goats!

Kelly Weaver has been to Food for the Hungry’s projects in Kenya four times on short-term teams with her church. And she also volunteers as an Advocate as well, promoting child sponsorship in her church. This past summer, she was inspired to run a marathon to raise funds to purchase goats for a village in Kenya. Because goats reproduce easily, provide a gallon of milk a day and require a small area to graze, they are perfect for creating microenterprise opportunities. Kelly started talking with some friends and a team of 12 was formed. Each team member got the word out to family, friends and co-workers via e-mail, Facebook, letters and word of mouth. The team ran on a gorgeous day in Arizona and raised nearly $5,000 - enough for 40 goats!