How Angel Tree Works
Expressing the love of Christ to children and families of inmates
Angel Tree - Over the summer, Prison Fellowship
field offices provide application forms to prison chaplains. The chaplains
pass these out to prisoners who have children. Some restrictions apply: The
children must be 16 or under; they must be children or stepchildren of the
prisoner; and there must be no court order barring the prisoner from
contacting his children.
The chaplains then return the completed applications to the PF field office.
Volunteers screen the applications, usually entering those that are qualified
into a computer system. The applications are then assigned to participating
churches or individuals. Efforts are made to match children with a church in
their own neighborhood.
Church coordinators will telephone or write to the child's care giver to
determine the child's Christmas wishes. Generally, Angel Tree tries to provide
each child with two gifts with a total value of no more than $35. One is a
toy, the other is an article of clothing.
The church coordinators then write out the information about the child and the
gift wishes on large, colorful tags provided by Angel Tree. The tags are
placed on a Christmas tree in the foyer or hallway of a participating church.
Church members then select tags from the tree and purchase and wrap the gifts.
Shortly before Christmas, the gifts are delivered to the child's home. In some
cases, the gift purchaser asks to make the delivery themselves. Most of the
deliveries are made by church delivery teams using a van. A number of churches
have begun distributing the gifts during an Angel Tree party at their church
which brings together church members, the care givers, and the Angel Tree
children.
We seek to make a Gospel presentation to each child at time of delivery.
Age-appropriate materials donated by the American Bible Society are available
for this as well as special materials on how to tell the Christmas Story to an
Angel Tree child. The gifts are given in the name of the absent parent and
Jesus.
Angel Tree is a wonderful way to express Christ's love. It may help open
hearts to receive the most important Gift, the one God gave to provide us with
salvation and forgiveness of sins. It may introduce these families to your
church, allowing you to provide year-round ministry. We honor requests to
match the same children with your church each year that the child remains
eligible for Angel Tree.
Every PF Angel Tree is different because every church is different. Angel Tree
is for all kinds of churches - large and small. Some churches can sponsor a
few children; others can sponsor many. Whether your church is large or small,
Angel Tree can bring a great blessing to you and to any number of families to
which you minister.
For additional information see
Angel Tree
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