City Hope's annual gift-giving program provides gifts to a diverse range of non-profit organizations during the holiday season. The gifts range from basic school supplies, shoes for men in rehab, to messenger bags for at risk youth. The City Hope tree enables those who participate to generously give a gift that expresses care and support to many people.

The City Hope Tree originally  began with Angel Tree, a gift giving program through Prison Fellowship Ministry. Each year we receive a long list  from men and women in prison who can't be with their children on Christmas.  Each parent gives us a message for their children as well as ideas for gifts that we can purchase and deliver on their behalf.  The messages from the inmates are often heartbreaking, full of longing and love.  Part of my job is to contact the families on the receiving end, confirming that the gifts we are delivering are appropriate.

Some families I contact can only tell me in haltering English that they'd love their children to receive a gift from the missing parent.  Others keep me on the line, wondering how their loved one is faring in prison and full of specific requests for the type of gift. I asked one woman what her child would like for Christmas and with a breaking voice she told me the only thing her children need is their father back from prison.

As I make all these calls, I'm grateful that we can, in a tiny way, deliver a message of hope and love.  While all the gifts we give won't remedy the hurt that these families are experiencing, it can be one way that incarcerated men and women can reach out across the hurt to remind their families that they are thinking of them on Christmas.

Find out how you can volunteer to help bring joy this Christmas.