Valentine’s Day:
choose to be unorthodox
Over 200 years ago, an important figure from BMS World Mission’s history sent a rather unorthodox letter to express his love. This year, why don’t you do something radical to celebrate your Valentine’s Day?
Jonathan Carey, the fourth son of BMS founder William Carey, fell in love when he was a teenager, and penned a slightly bizarre poem to the girl who had caught his affection (we’re not joking, check out the video below.) While a bit unusual and definitely funny, it’s inspired us to think about how we too can choose to be different this Valentine’s Day – and celebrate God’s love while we’re at it!
It’s easy to get caught up in the romance of Valentine’s Day – the cards, the flowers – even the giant teddy bears! And while it’s great to celebrate love, let’s not forget the other important kinds of love we can celebrate: God’s love for us, and the love we have for our neighbours.
So we’re challenging you to be unorthodox this year. Instead of going for a fancy dinner, treating yourself to a luxury gift or some posh chocolates, how about you give the gift of a life transformed this Valentine’s day?
For £66, the price of a fancy dinner for two, you could provide enough seeds and tools to South Sudanese refugees living in Uganda to give a family food for a year.
Instead of buying that bouquet of flowers, why not spend £19 on supporting an Indian disciple-maker in Christian outreach for a week?
And while posh chocolates might be delicious, could you spend £11 on a day’s education for a child in Albania instead?
Just like Jonathan Carey, you can choose to do things a bit differently to everyone else – and isn’t that what we’re called to do as Christians? It might not have panned out for Jonathan all those years ago (and you’ll have to watch the video to find out why!), but we can promise you that by donating today, or by praying for BMS work, you’ll be successful in doing something amazing: spreading God’s love across the world.
And while we’re spreading the love this Valentine’s Day, we thought we’d take a moment to say how much we appreciate you – our BMS supporters. We love your heart for God’s work across the world, and the generosity it inspires. Thank you for all you do. ❤
All funds donated will go to where the need is greatest.
Words by Laura Durrant.
