Merry Christmas from the Walk Humbly team.

It’s interesting that a time that is associated with peace on earth, is also so connected to consumerism and busyness. It is so connected with not feeling at peace. It is so connected with noise and clutter. And this got me thinking about what peace is anyway.

As many of you know, The Walk Humbly Initiative was started out of a desire to see International volunteering done better. So with that in mind, I have decided to adapt the UN’s slogan for this year to make it “Volunteer Now for our common good, but think about how.”

The Advent candle for this week represents Hope - specifically the Hope of Jesus’ birth and God among us and the hope we have that he will come again and heal the whole of creation.

Yet, as we have talked about before, Hope can be a slippery thing to hold onto. While it’s often connected to faith and beauty, sometimes it’s helpful to look at more concrete things.

At a recent meeting of a climate justice group I am part of, we started brainstorming ways that we have seen the world change for the better in our lifetimes. Here are some of the things we came up with.

I don’t know what it’s like for your family but every year I want to help my kids engage with Advent and every year it's just a little bit too busy to do “properly.” The reader who posed this question thought so too, so here are some ideas that I have come up with to help our kids remember others during this Christmas season that can be as creative and complicated, or as quick and easy, as you need it to be.

For those of us who are seeking to bring a bit more reflection into the crazy Christmas period, here are 3 different advent resources that use 3 different formats from 3 different agencies that are involved in development work or Christian advocacy work from here in Australia.