<div>Christmas, an early Christmas story
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<div>One of the gifts we receive from the Lord is in realizing how we can participate in, “Your neighbor as yourself.” These situations seem to be more intensive and more frequent when we do the Christmas Giving Program. Many of you know that we always have that heartwarming Christmas story that we tell in our February edition of StreetLights. Well, this year we have a situation where we are reaching out to you for a very special family. They are going to need your prayers, lots of prayers and financial help, <strong>so please read this story until the very end.</strong>
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<div>We were on our fifth day of taking names for our Christmas Giving Program. We were already over forty names in when I turned around at the entry station and there was a mother standing there and she was very obviously pregnant. I just smiled to myself because I was going to tell her that we could sign up her unborn child for Christmas Gifts. We have been doing this for over 30 years. And every time I tell a pregnant mother that we could sign up her unborn child they are always very surprised, you might even say shocked, and every time I do this I cannot help giggling to myself. It is quite an experience.
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<div>So I asked her for all of the paperwork, her picture ID, the original social security cards of the children, and the birth certificates of the children. She reached into her bag and pulled out a stack of papers and put them on the counter. “How many children?” I asked. “Five,” she replied with a broad smile on her face. I thought to myself, “Oh boy, she has five already, and now here comes the sixth.” So I went through all of the children’s information making sure her name was on all the birth certificates and none of her children were over fourteen years old. If they were then I would take them out of the pack because we stop giving gifts if the child is over fourteen.
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<div>“Ok,” I said, “And we are going to get Christmas gifts for your unborn child, do you have a name picked out that you would like us to use?” She just looked at me and quietly said, “I am having triplets.” “Three!" I shouted. You could hear me all over the LittleStore. She broke into laughter. She couldn’t even talk to me she was laughing so hard. “That’s eight!" I stammered. So now I was the one in shock and she was the one giggling. In mind my I kept hearing, “That’s eight.” I put the number eight on her registration slip and led her into the entry area.
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<div>Pat was doing the entry that day so I said, "Pat, this lady has five children," and I could see Pat’s eyes open because we usually don’t have many families of that size. And I continued, "And she is pregnant with triplets." When I said this her eyes were wide, very wide open and she started to laugh. I told Pat to enter the five children and to call me when she started the unborn children so I could show her how to enter them into our system.
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<div>Not being able to contain myself I headed back to the office to get Kathy to come and help with the entry. As I walked through the warehouse I stopped and told the story to Evelyn and Angie who do all of the pricing of items for the store. They both started to laugh and I could still hear them as I entered the office door. Then I saw Kathy talking to Priscila and I immediately told them the story and they both started smiling and shaking their heads.
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<div>After the mother finished the entry I reviewed her information, name, address, the names of her children, their clothing sizes, and ages. I noticed she had names for her three unborn sons. I quietly asked her when she was due. I wanted to know so I can put her name on our daily prayer list. She said, “In December.” “Ok,” I said, “Our policy is that we will only give the gifts to the person whose name is on the receipt. But I do not want you to worry about getting the gifts for your children in time for Christmas. So if you are in the hospital just before Christmas Eve have someone call me and I will make sure you get the gifts in time.” “Thank you,” she said. I then wrote my cell number on her receipts. And said, “May God bless you and keep you and your family in the palm of His hand.” Then she walked out the door.
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<div>After she left there was something nagging at me. All day, into the evening and it was still there after I woke up the next day. <strong>“How is this family going to survive, how is this family going to survive? </strong>I am still pondering that question, but I have decided that we will start a special GoFundMe this Christmas for this family. So if you can swing it, send us your donation specifying “for the family of eight.”
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<div>Thank you for listening to my story!
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Anonymous

Beth Tobin

Cynthia Pellegrini

Anne Dowen

Loretta Wilmarth

Ralph Weirich

Heather Capes

Mike Ryan

Florence LeClair

Amy Gaspari

Paul Pirozzi

James Kee

sue strandberg

How is this family going to survive?

platform

Platform is iOS

Android

Adyen Google Pay Development Audience

$opt_dummy_attribute

English only

Deprecate Stripe Legacy

dyn_template_ids

Adyen V6 Bene Transfer & MyMoney Campaign Organizers - test01

Bene transfer V6 and AdyenV6MyMoney Campaign Organizers - production

OneTrust next-app audience

fundCountryCode

NextDoor Share Option Users

Fundraisers with Reactions feature capability

fundCurrencyCode

US + Non-charity COs Only

locale

fund country is US and user language is English

personId

comms-internal-person-ids

Enhanced Story Experience Users

Suggested Goal Experience Users

user language is English and fund country: US, AU, DK, FI, IE, NO, SE, CA, GB; 

Poster share - new funds eligible (newest 9/18)

Streaming widgets beta user

paymentProcessor

3DS payment method

user language is English and fundCountry: US, AU, DK, FI, IE, NO, SE, CA, GB; 

GoFundMe Employees

ipAddress

Mark Rieth IP Address

Version 9.2.0 and above

Fund is in English speaking country

desktop

Android v12.11.0 and above

Platform is Android

paymentMethodType

checkoutType

Payment method type group to be vaulted on success

admin pr kit prod

EUR Donation Upsell

Share Text generation Skip Fundraiser

(prod) new funds eligible for amp12 (UGC gallery)

fintrac_cad_idv_form_v2 audience

paymentProcessorAccountId

fallback mode accounts

proCampaignId

p2p legacy startfundraising page

be_supporter_comments_enabled_supported_funds

AMP24 New Funds Only PROD (DO NOT MODIFY)

countryCode

charityId

UKCharities

Federated Search Internal Testing

route.pathname community

US Donation Upsell audience 

Auto Thanks Feature Audience

Supporter Comments Eligible Funds

International Only

fundId

braze fundraiser group 

Payment Identity Transfers ATO Risk Check (Targeted) - Production

Fundraiser Saved Payment Method Rate Limit Bypass (Production)

leaderboard-partner-id-audience-givepanel

Version 9.2.1 and above

AUD Donation Upsell audience

fundraiserCountryCode is US/EN

Active Fundraiser - Smart Default Cadence

DAF Internal

Vault on success card payment method

Platform is iOS v11.0.0 and above

Desktop users

Person ids

United States (US) users

allow yuno fundraisers for test

Mexico country code

Posters INTL

NPO Profile Opted-In

iOS at or above 12.4.0

non-US recurring donors

Canada Campaign Owner Group

Fundraiser Without Meta Link

Scheduler payment tester gorup

charityCommunityId

Charities allow to be claimed unclaimed (PRD)

Canada (CA) users

currencyCode

UC Tipping v20250115 International

pymk_production_xplr_fe_team

Android at or above 12.2.0

Profile photo entry point audience

smart goals (fundraiser/manage) on test01

Activity Tracking v1 Beta Testing

writePath

Stream Notification

start gfm intl allowed locales

Platform is iOS v11.2.0 and above

prod_ach_audience

AI Chatbot Audience

amp13 only new funds (prod) (anyword auto)

UC Flow Enabled (Prod)

Payment Identity Beneficiary Verification - Production

shared notification bell audience

Custom users

ach frontend audience

Android v11.0.0 and above

Users Receiving Payments Paused Notifications

smart goals test01

Manage Coach - US English Organizers Only + new funds only

Team EGG - IP Address list

Fundraiser Without Instagram Deep Link

Native 11.4.0 and above

UC Tipping v20250107

Users Receiving Braze KYC Validation Failed

Native 11.3.0 and above

Influencer - Prod

US fundraisers and US users

userEmail

template_id

userId

fundUrl

isCharityCo

email

appVersion

shouldBucketIntoExperiment

partnerId

donationCadence

isActiveFundraiser

isPartner

isMobile

npoProfileOptIn

fundIsLinkedWithMeta

hasSessionDonation

isCampaignOwner

fundHasInstagramDeepLink

Native 11.4.0 and higher

New funds eligible - Video Sharing (PROD)

GB Donation Upsell audience 

Auto Thanks V3 Rollout Audience

Thank you V3 testing whitelist

isRecurringFriendly

Is Recurring Friendly

Excluded funds - Video Sharing

Logged In Users

CH Donation Upsell audience

Android v10.6.0 and above

userCurrencyCode

Localized Currency

v11.5.0 and above

testAudience

pathname

Survicate

appVersion is at or above 12.8.0

Non-charity fund

isChallengeFundraiser

challenge-fundraisers

Payment Identity Launch Verification - Production

New funds eligible - Posters v2

CAD Donation Upsell Audience

Braze Email Tester

NPO Profile Opted-Out

iOS App Version

hasKnownDonors

PYMK has donors

iOS v12.3.0 and above

How is this family going to survive?

Still $17,960 to go. Help us build momentum.