With Christmas quickly approaching Dallas County residents may find themselves scrambling to send out their Christmas cards and find time to get their loved ones the perfect gift. This year Integrity Worldwide, an international, Christian, non-profit ministry may have their solution.

The ministry is launching their fourth annual Christmas card campaign where people can purchase a Christmas card for a friend or family member and the money they spend on the card will go towards one of Integrity Worldwide’s many projects in Kenya.

“It’s a great way to bless two people at the same time. You get to bless somebody at Christmas, but also help somebody in Africa,” Alan Hicks Jr., Integrity Worldwide executive director said. “We’re working in Africa and we want to support the projects there, but we were thinking about a way that we could bring back the core of what Christmas is all about — helping other people and family time.”

The Christmas cards can be purchased for a $25 minimum donation, and can be ordered online at integrityworldwide.com or by calling the Integrity Worldwide office at 334-322-1201.

For residents who are unsure of what to get their friends or family, Hicks said the card is perfect.

“It’s a cool gift. It’s kind of a cool way to remind kids that it’s good to help other people,” Hicks said. “And it’s kind of like a two-fold thing. A person on one end, they get a gift, and they get to say, ‘wow, I got something that kind of helped somebody else this year.’”

“The cool thing about it,” Averee Hicks, founder of Integrity Worldwide said, “is we will send out the cards and the postage is paid. We pay the postage. We can send out the cards for people, or if people want to send out the cards with a personal note in it we mail the card to them.”

Alan explained that the money donated will go towards a number of projects in Meto, Kenya Integrity Worldwide is working on including micro credit, school lunches, education or water projects.

“At the first of this year we’ll be building a huge dam right outside of Meto. There are so many families that can’t make it to our well. We’re going to build a huge dam that will catch all of the rainwater. It should last them like six to eight months. It’s an amazing, amazing thing,” Alan said. “I wish I could bring everybody from Selma just to see the area.”

Donors can select a specific project they’d like to support, and “if you don’t pick it will go towards our dam,” Alan said.

Alan described the cards as Christmassy but with a little bit of an African theme, and something even “procrastinator’s like him” would have time to pick up as they will be taking orders up to Dec. 22.

“The money goes to something of real value that is life changing for other people. It’s a precious way to remember somebody for Christmas,” Averee said. “It’s a great thing, and it has blessed so many people.”