Today on MoneyLife

MoneyLife host Chuck Bentley gives listeners a "heads up" about today's featured guest, John Coors. John is a member of the Coors family of Coors Brewing Company fame. He’s been on a 16-year journey with God.

Chuck tells listeners that we're just a few weeks from the big start of the holiday shopping season. Often Christmas shopping gets people into trouble because they overspend using credit and it takes them many months after Christmas to pay for what they bought.

This year, however, the economy is causing most people to cut back on Christmas giving. Chuck wants to help listeners come up with ways to save on Christmas gifts. He says he'll shop more online not only to buy directly but to price compare. He advises avoiding the madness the day after Thanksgiving.

Chuck says competing to get "stuff" has never made sense to him. We should start thinking about Christmas gifts now, do your shopping earlier, and keep from getting caught up in the emotion of after Thanksgiving shopping.

Consider a "no purchase" Christmas where you and your family agree to not spend money on gifts for each other.

Instead, you can come up with things you can make, bake, give (homemade coupons for special services like babysitting, housecleaning, washing the car, massage, time, etc.)

Then, spend Christmas Day helping other people, perhaps serving in a soup kitchen.

Another option, instead of giving gifts to all your extended family, pick one family or one person each year to bless. For more great advice, see Chuck's article.

After the break, Chuck welcomes John Coors to the program. John is Chairman and CEO of CoorsTek, a manufacturing consulting firm.

John shares his testimony, telling listeners he was saved at age 6. He talks about his family. John is married with 10 children! - 6 adopted, 4 biological.

John made a big decision to to leave the family business, Coors Brewing Company. He had spent his entire life preparing to work on the production of beer. His educational background is chemical engineering, biochemistry, and brewing science. He spent his work days from a teenager forward at the brewery, the largest single brewery in the world.

In 1992, God intervened, and gave John and his wife a choice of continuing on the current path at Coors Brewing or to take an unknown path that God wanted him to take. He left his identity at Coors Brewing and began a new journey.

God opened his heart to adopt. This had been a part of his wife’s heart for a long time but not part of his at all. They wanted to adopt from China, but that door closed, and the agency connected them with a child in Japan. Now the Coors have two from China, one from Bulgaria, two from Africa.

John says he has a passion for the people of Africa ignited by the adoption of a child from Kenya. He went there to learn more about his child’s heritage. As he flew across the sub Sahara at night, he noticed he didn’t see any lights even though there were millions of people below. John felt God spoke to him about showing love to those people.

The Lord gave him a plan to start a mission called Circle of Light, using modern energy to minister to people in rural Africa. There are 800 million people living south of the Sahara desert and 600 million of them have no access to electricity. It's a struggle for them to improve their lives without modern energy.

John believes we can minister to their need for modern lighting and cooking as a demonstration of Christ’s love for them. It's easy to connect physical light with spiritual light. John says the people of sub Sahara Africa often feel hopeless and receptive to people who care for them. Once helped, their hearts are open to Christ.

Th ministry has had a profound impact on John. He says when you get outside of your own self, you see other people are just like you. They want to improve their lives.

Mozambique has 95% unemployment, women gather firewood, carry 10-30 pounds on their head, use firewood to cook meals. The utimate goal of Circle of Light is to bring modern energy to 100 million people, electricity to one million homes directly impacting 10 million people and indirectly impacting 100 million because of the communities they live in.

John also mentions lightforafrica.org.

After the last break, Chuck gives some closing thoughts. He believes God has called all of us to bring His light where there is spiritual darkness. The work John Coors is doing is wodnerful. God wants you to make money, manage it wisely, and use it to fulfill His purposes for your life.

John is an inspiring example of that. All of us need to think about why we’re here on Earth. We’re not here just to survive a down economy; we’re here to help others.

Christians in this country have the opportunity to be salt and light for the rest of the world. We must point people in hard times to the hope that’s in Christ. That’s why we created a feature on Crown.org called Hope, Help, and Insight. Chuck says he hopes you’ll join us there and find our new video updates.

Please get into dialogue with us. We want to hear from you and get your questions and feedback. You can minister to other people. We've called for a season of fasting and prayer. God put it on the hearts of people at Crown to turn to Him for economic healing.

Chuck truly believes God is capable. He just received an interview request by a French television about the unusual things Christians are doing to deal with this financial crisis. It will be a great opportunity to get the Gospel out and bring God glory.

Funding an Adoption

Adoption offers a chance at a new beginning for thousands of children cared for by the state and private agencies.

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Faithfulness To Our Calling

Pray that God will keep you faithful to the purposes He has for your life. He strengthens those whose hearts are fully committed to Him.

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Bottom Line Discipleship

You can’t serve the Savior and all that stuff on an equal footing. One has to take precedence.

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Reflecting God's Generous Love

From time to time in the Scriptures, we are reminded that generous giving began in the heart of God.

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Other Resources:

• ABCs of Money Package
• Career Direct
• God's Principles for Operating a Business
• Business By the Book
• Crown Mvelopes