I heard about this on a friend’s Twitter and thought it was a really great idea. I don’t know if we can give a goat on our own this year but I feel like I owe it to Katharine to help her publicize this as much as possible. If you can help out, let her know. –jen

At Christmastime in years past, I’ve received the World Vision catalog in the mail. And unlike the other catalogs, like American Girl, there’s a part of me that would be moved. World Vision’s catalog is filled with gifts to give that could save lives, that could combat world hunger, that could lift a family out of poverty. In years past, I would sigh, put the catalog in the recycling bin and pray that someday my family would be able to do something bigger for the world. Christmas, I would reason to myself, was stressful enough. I’ll get to it one day.

Today is that one day. We just as many expectations on us as there were last year, but this year, we want to not just pick up the World Vision catalog, but do something with it. This year, my family and I want to buy goats.

This year, my family and I want to buy 100 goats.

This idea came to us in a whirlwind. We were given a little money to do good with and we thought, yes! Goats from World Vision! But that seemed too easy, and certainly it did help ease our burden for the world a little, but surely there was a way to multiply our money, or multiply our efforts, so that it wasn’t just one goat bought. Could we get our friends to buy goats too?

So we’re launching a campaign. It’s called 100 Goats.

Our goal is to have 100 Goats bought through World Vision by December 25, 2011. A goat costs $75. As a family, we’re going to have bake sales and do yard work to raise money. But by ourselves, the best we could hope for is two or three goats. We’d like to invite you, our readers, to consider how you could help us. We know that lots of organizations are asking for help at this time of year and we don’t want to take away from them. But we believe that there are friends of ours who will get excited about this with us. We believe that God will bless those excited people. We believe that nothing is too audacious for God.

Are you excited yet? What you can do:

1) EASIEST: Go to our Facebook page and like us. This will tell all your friends about us in your feed and then maybe someone will be inspired to help.

2) EASIER: Click the link to World Vision and buy a goat yourself. The whole process will take less than five minutes. Then come back to our facebook wall and tell us you did it. We’ll give you a number “GOAT #54!” that you put as a badge on your profile, or your blog or print it out and pin it to your shirt.

3) EASY: Tell your friends about 100 Goats. Link back to this blog. Link to the facebook page. Tweet about this. You never know, weirder things than this have gone viral.

4) ALSO EASY: Allow us to guest blog on your website. I’d love to be interviewed. Or better still, interview my kids. Corbin’s making business cards to pass out at church. Miranda’s making bread to sell and raise money. Ariel’s blogging about this. I’ll put the younger two in a video. I’m not above using their cuteness to change the world.

5) A LITTLE BIT HARDER: Mention the 100 Goats campaign to your church group, your small group, your karate class or your writing group. Ask them if they would pool together the money they would spend on a piece of pie and a cup of coffee and buy a goat together.

6) A LITTLE BIT HARDER THAN THAT: Organize a fundraiser yourself and see how many goats your youth group or Sunday School class can buy.

Regardless of how you help, please pray that my kids get a heart for the world, that their compassion for others grows, that they don’t get so wrapped up in the latest video game that they forget what Christmas is really about.

And pray for me, that I don’t get stressed.