Not sure how widespread this is, but one stake is planning to send 500 xmas trees to Palestinian refugees in Jordan. This is their service project for the year.

That'll go over like a ton of Bibles.

You've obviously never been to a Palestinian Christmas party!!!





Yeah, me either...

Love the boots.

I can't believe that. That seems too tone deaf for even them.

Ever eat a pine tree? Many parts are edible.

-Yul Gibbons

FOOD FIGHT!!!!!

-John "Bluto" Blutarsky (while visiting Jordan after the Christmas tree delivery)

LOL. That was one of my favorite scenes in one of my favorite movies.

Yep, one of my favorites too. Animal House came out the summer before my senior year of high school. Me and my buddies loved it! Probably because it portrayed a similar life style that we were all living at the time :)

I believe it is spelled Yule during the holidays.

>> I believe it is spelled Yule during the holidays.<<

Only if he's eating a Christmas tree. Also, don't believe everything you believe.

      "I have it on good authority that
      AIs don't like real x-mas trees."

        --Judic West, Artificial Biologist

AIs like anything with "X" in it. Just ask Elon Musk!

- Jarvik West, Working on an artificial heart that makes Elon a bit more human to the rest of us.

> I believe it is spelled Yule during the holidays.

You'll know when the pine comes. ;)

messygoop Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Not sure how widespread this is, but one stake is
> planning to send 500 xmas trees to Palestinian
> refugees in Jordan. This is their service project
> for the year.

Does this 'service project' (I would like to see documentation) mention the execution of this idea might be?

First: finding & making payments with a vendor.
Next: finding & contracting with a carrier.
Next: getting permission from Isreal (not exactly fans / supporters of 'Christianity', Right)
Next: have someone on the ground to verify arrival & distribution to the intended recipients.


I Smell A Rat.

Maybe there's some guy in the stake who owns a Xmas tree farm and business is down or somesuch. Maybe he needs land cleared and now he has an excuse to get free help removing the trees or a write-off.

There's usually some kind of story (motive) behind weird gifts like that, IMO.

Israel is fine with christians, at least they don't oppress them. But per the OP, the trees are going to Jordan.

If the story is true, and I have my doubts, Palestinian refugees in Jordan are likely to interpret the Christmas trees as a one-finger salute.

Lot's Wife Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> If the story is true, and I have my doubts,
> Palestinian refugees in Jordan are likely to
> interpret the Christmas trees as a one-finger
> salute.

Both figuratively and literally!

This is so blind and tone deaf!

Refugees need christmas trees just like fish need bicycles.

They need clothes, food, toiletries, blankets, cots, pillows, diapers for their kids. Send them 500 chickens or 500 halal MREs or other goods.

What an empty, token gesture. Sure send 500 cut trees that will eventually die and rot and crowd the refugee camp. I'm sure they all want to sit in front of the tree while they're starving, freezing and probably very itchy from filth and maybe lice, just wishing they could brush their teeth and have some clean water.

What they really need are Book of Mormons with personalized testimonies written in them. Living the gospel will solve all their problems.

As long as everyone understands that the real first principle of the gospel is 'Pay your tithing".

Don't knock toilet paper. They need that too.

Just think of the photo op: cute young missionaries wearing name badges, standing with a Palestinian refugee in front of a donated Christmas tree. What great publicity for LDS Inc for the holidays.

heartbroken Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Just think of the photo op: cute young
> missionaries wearing name badges, standing with a
> Palestinian refugee in front of a donated
> Christmas tree.

A donated Christmas tree sent to the wrong country: Jordan as opposed to the Gaza Strip in Israel/Palestine.

And are they just naked trees?

Are they still tied up for shipping?

What if the refugees couldn't bring the family collection of Christmas tree ornaments?

Where will the Christmas presents come from, for under the tree?

Well, at least they're not old Donny & Marie Xmas 8-tracks.

"Grandma Got Run Over By a Tapir"
"I Saw Mommy Kissing Korihor"
"White & Delightsome Christmas"
"Have Yourself a Merry Little Smithmas"

…and so much more!

About six to,seven percent of Palestinians are Christians. Even so, there are certainlyy other things they need more and excluding Muslims seems wrong. How,domtheynintend to get them there?

-How do they intend to get them there?

Jaredite Barge Shipping Co

Seriously, I have no idea how these are being sent from Gilbert AZ.

I’m not buying this story at all unless and until I see some reliable confirmation.

Brother Of Jerry Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I’m not buying this story at all unless and
> until I see some reliable confirmation.

You can watch the announcement for yourself.

https://youtu.be/uQavPKbsHAQ?t=262

It runs from 4:21-4:52 (30 seconds of the announcements)

Yeah, a source would be nice.

Of course, I can imagine morgbots who are this tone-deaf, but I can't see it coming out of a stake budget.

Gordon B. Stinky Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Yeah, a source would be nice.
>
> Of course, I can imagine morgbots who are this
> tone-deaf, but I can't see it coming out of a
> stake budget.


They'll 'invite' stake members to participate in 'the blessings' by not relying on SLC/COB to fund this! No Sense in 'diluting the benefits'!!!

Ok, reliable source. Now I’m just left wondering what the hell are they thinking?

I at least hope they are sourcing the trees from Europe or the Middle East, and not shipping them from the US.

I watched that part of the video. I might have missed something, but I didn't hear anything about shipping trees to Jordan.

What the video said was "as you came into the chapel the church this morning you probably noticed Christmas trees in our foyer uh the Higley stake has got a stake wide service project for this holiday season it's called 500 gold angel project trees this will benefit Syrian and Palestinian refugees who have fled to Jordan there's flyers out there and if you are in a situation where you can help donate please do so"

There are Angel tree programs already in existence in this country - their purpose is to raise money to provide Christmas gifts to children.

This one is run by the Salvation Army

https://saangeltree.org

So is the church sending Christmas trees to Jordan, or did they just appropriate the idea from the SA as a way to raise money for aid to refugees?

We still have the problem of Jordan, the vast majority of whose refugees arrived between 1948 and 1967. Giving aid there does zero for the Gazans who are suffering monumentally now.

Tone deaf at the very best, I'd think.

Angel trees seem slightly more likely. I really don't know what they are trying to do.

However, angel trees come with a whole different set of issues. Where I worked, they always got angel kids and there was pressure for every department to play along. I had to go shopping during the worst times and get all the stuff the kid had on his wish list. Then the angel kid sponsor would come and pick up all the stuff and re-sort everything they way they wanted after I made an effort to get things for a specific kid. It would have been easier on everyone to give money instead, IMO. Oh well, it does some good and all that.

If someone is already struggling to get gifts for their own wad of kids and grandkids, it's not easy. The more I think about this, the more disgusted I am that the church thinks up more stuff for the members to do and PAY for. The church has money but the member always has to do more, more, more.

I think there are better ways of helping refugees, and I don't mean by giving them Bibles or Xmas traditions.

what he really was trying to say was that the trees would be sold in AZ and the money raised would be sent to the........ Middle East .....somewhere like Palestine......he had no specifics or else he didn't want to announce anything too controversial so he garbled it. It sounds like they may be selling poinsettias too. Someone is collecting money and please buy if you can as you leave today.

I don't miss this announcement stuff at all...... BUT the flower arrangement is nice next to the pulpit. Probably a ward member died, because the bishop's handbook used to say, no floral arrangements by the pulpit! Dang it all!

It may not be a big concern anymore.
Reverence doesn't seem to be either.

wrong spot



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/07/2023 12:48PM by Gordon B. Stinky.

They could burn them as fuel.

I guess in the desert they would lose their moisture rather quickly, but poor firewood if still damp (why firefighters encourage people to quickly dispose of old Christmas trees)>

A fund raiser that sells trees to ward members makes more sense. I should have listened more carefully.

On a completely different topic, I noticed something in the service I don’t think I have ever seen in another church service outside Mormondom - a chorister for every hymn. Other churches don’t need a chorister unless there is something really unusual about the musical number, like being a round.

Yet another odd quirk of Mormonism.

They have to have some way of obligating every member to show up each week--any calling will do.