Destination Distributions

Look at the joy this simple gift-filled shoebox from Operation Christmas Child brings to this little boy in Honduras. Last week Operation Christmas Child volunteers spent about a week in Honduras delivering these precious boxes to their destinations--children who need to know Jesus' love.

One of the neat things those volunteers reported was that much of the ministry at those distributions was done by children. Little boys in white shirts with big Bibles--hardly tall enough to be seen over the pulpit--would bring a gospel message. At one church the children worked until 2:00 am the night before the distribution to get their program ready so they could make an impact for the gospel in their community.

I just finished reading the book "Crazy Love" by Frances Chan and he writes about being 'obsessed' with God. Am I obsessed enough? Am I really willing to do ANYTHING for God--including giving up time spent doing something I like? I'm doing a lot of self-examination about that and praying that God will continue to work in my heart "to will and to do His good pleasure"--to be obsessed for Him.

Last Friday we had a huge snowstorm here in Erie and in the middle of it the UPS truck came and delivered 48 cartons of paddleball games for this year's shoeboxes. Thankfully, my husband arrived home just before the truck did and we were able to help the UPS driver unload the cartons. The driver asked my husband if we worked for a charity and Jim explained Operation Christmas Child to him. Then the driver said, "I take back all the bad things I thought about you all day long while I moved those boxes around."

I also got 320 clothing items at Target after school yesterday--hats and gloves for 5-9 year olds--at less than 25 cents each. I love seeing God provide more and more items for each of our boxes.

And it's so amazing to realize that God has a plan for every item. Every paddleball game, every visor, every coloring book, every pair of gloves is going to be distributed into the hands of a child somewhere around the world.

God knows the destination for each box and God is preparing to distribute His blessing with each one.