On the Sixth Day

(singing)  On the sixth day of National Collection Week the good Lord gave to me--six relay centers, FIVE ANSWERED PRAYERS, four carton pallets, three wide rolls of tape, two fuller trucks, and another great collection victory.

Today = 9 hours.  150 miles.  4 relay centers and a packing party

What a great day for Operation Christmas Child fun.

Started the day at the relay center in Waterford where Kim Kinnear and her crew have about 800 boxes in cartons already.

While I was there two women came in bringing 28 boxes from a new participating church.  I had so much fun talking with them and hearing how excited they are already to do more boxes next year.  They have plans for collecting items year-round so they can pack more.  What an amazing start that was to the day.  Oh, I also loaded 20 of their extra cartons into my van to take back to Erie.

Next it was on to Corry.  They had a wonderful packing party last night but had run out of boxes.  So I pulled a couple of cartons of "GO boxes" out of my van and started folding.  I also pulled out boxes of extra fillers and toothbrushes and coloring books I'd brought along.  We packed another 100 boxes while I was there and then loaded some of their cartons into my van since I was heading to their collection center.  They've already collected over 1200 boxes (a 20% increase over last year.)

On to Warren I went.  where Collection Center Coordinator Patti Seth and her crew have collected about 1000 boxes.  God blessed them with a great front-page newspaper article today.  That article was probably the most accurate and comprehensive article about Operation Christmas Child I've read in any newspaper.  Everything you need to know to pack a box was included.  I'm praying many people in Warren will be at WalMart today buying items for shoeboxes to bring to Patti's collection center tomorrow.

In Warren they showed me a carton containing one huge box (size of a file box) that took up 1/4th of the carton space.

The donor had included a note on the top of the box "Teenager Girl.  Size Large (but narrow in the body) White vest.  $12.00 for shipping."  We had a good laugh over that one.  If only we could get people to understand the benefits of packing regular size boxes that allow us to utilize maximum carton space.

Leaving Warren I headed to North East where I found that Bryon Switala, our relay center coordinator there, had to travel out of town for work this week leaving his wife to man the relay center.  I think he owes her!  She's done a great job and collected about 650 boxes already this week.

Next I headed back to Erie and arrived as the last few participants were cleaning up from a packing party hosted in the home of my brother and sister-in-law for 16 members of their former church.  This church, Fellowship Baptist, has participated in Operation Christmas Child since 1994--longer than any other church in Erie County.

This year this group of 18 precious folks packed 320 boxes for OCC.  This will be the last year for Fellowship Baptist to be listed on the OCC Shoebox Drop-Off Logs.  They recently donated their church and land to become a satellite of another church in the area.  I can honestly say I've never seen another church group with more giving hearts.  Though only a few were left when I took this picture, you can see the joy on their faces.  What a way to end my OCC day today.

Well done, Fellowship Baptist.  Well done!

On the Fifth Day

(singing) On the fifth day of National Collection Week the good Lord gave to me--FIVE ANSWERED PRAYERS, four carton pallets, three wide rolls of tape, 2 still half-full trucks, and another great collection victory.

Blessed this morning to find a front-page newspaper article in the Erie Times-News about Operation Christmas Child with a color picture.  I'm so grateful for at least some mention of Operation Christmas Child in the newspaper on each of the last three days.

I stopped at the collection center after my school day and made it there 5 minutes before it closed--just in time to drop off the last 21 boxes I packed last evening.  They didn't take in many boxes this afternoon but a second truck was dropped today so it's ready and waiting for the harvest from the relay centers.

The only box I have yet to complete is the one pictured above.  A few months ago I found a brand new pair of Red Wing leather work boots at a local discount store for only $2.00.  Couldn't pass them up, so I filled them with some tools to make a tool-themed box for a 10-14 year old boy.  (yeah, I know the box is big, but I'm believing God has someone special to receive these size 9B boots)

On the way home from the collection center I stopped to drop off extra shoebox items at my brother and sister-in-law's home.  They're hosting a packing party tomorrow.

Heading out tomorrow to visit relay centers.  Can you believe National Collection Week will be over in just three days?

Surreal.

On the Fourth Day

(singing) On the fourth day of National Collection Week the good Lord gave to me four carton pallets, three rolls of wide tape, two half-filled trucks, and another great collection victory.

It's hard to believe that National Collection Week for Operation Christmas Child is already half over.  Tonight when I got to the collection center the wall was lined with about 800 boxes so the three of us got to work putting them into cartons.

Only one donor came this evening and brought 18 boxes.  That gave us a chance to get those boxes into cartons.  We worked hard to pack 50 cartons and at the end of the night there was one box left over.

Here it is--sitting by the wall.  

And as I looked at that one small box tonight I remembered why we do Operation Christmas Child.  I saw a little boy excited over the Spiderman pictures on the box.  I watched the joy on his face as he opened a box with treasures just for him.  I heard his giggles and I felt his excitement.  

The box sitting on the floor all alone is really a little boy.

And that is why we do Operation Christmas Child.

On the Third Day

(singing)  On the third day of National Collection Week the good Lord gave to me three rolls of wide tape, two filling trucks, and another great collection victory.

I can't believe three days of our collection for Operation Christmas Child are over already.  I don't have a lot of new updates but I found out that Pat Carter's relay center in East Springfield took in 800 boxes in the first two days.  That was great news.

Things started off slowly at the Erie collection center.  Soon after I arrived to volunteer tonight, though, Rose Dobson came with a caravan of five vehicles filled with more than 1000 shoeboxes.  And Rose still has more loads to deliver!  She's pictured above with some of her shoeboxes.

Rose buys items and packs year-round in her garage.  Last year she packed 1,737 boxes and this year she packed 1,500.  And she doesn't use "GO" boxes.  Most of her boxes were salvaged from our local Target.  She's developed a good relationship with the employees there and they let her choose the empty boxes she wants from the shelves.  Many of them are a beautiful deep red and are the perfect size.

Rose struggles with chronic medical problems but she still works tirelessly to bless children around the world.  She told me, "When you keep working you don't hurt so much."  

She trusts God to provide for her boxes and has amazing stories of how He's given her all she needs.

On the third day we had Rose.

On the Second Day

(singing)  "On the second day of National Collection Week the good Lord gave to me two empty trucks and another great collection victory."

Well, actually I don't have any victories to report yet except that all the relay centers are open as far as I know.  I wish I got reports from each relay center every day and could keep track of how many boxes have come in but maybe it's better that I don't know until the end of the week.  

In the meantime, I've enjoyed brief phone calls with a few of our relay and collection center coordinators.  I especially enjoyed talking with both Ron and Carol Johnson--the relay center coordinators in Bradford.  Each time I talk with them I can sense God's love flowing through them.

Back in 2010 Ron had open heart surgery at the Cleveland Clinic and Carol left him there to come home and run the relay center.  It's what they both wanted because of their dedication to Operations Christmas Child.

Tonight Carol told me that when she recruits volunteers to serve at her relay center she tells them there are three qualifications--

1)  You have to smile

2)  You have to be encouraging

3)  You have to pray with each shoe box donor before they leave the relay center

How great is that?  I wish every collection volunteer (including myself) would just keep those three rules.  We'd sure be blessing a lot more people on this side of the box.

On The First Day

(singing) On the first day of National Collection Week the good Lord gave to me another great collection victory.

Here's a picture of my minivan last night packed with 350 boxes ready to drop off at the collection center today.  All over the country similar minivans loaded with boxes have been pulling up to relay centers and collection centers with their precious cargo--each box destined to bless a child in the name of Jesus.

After a busy day at school I headed out to drive to Meadville and Conneaut Lake to visit the relay centers there.  And for the third year in a row I made that drive through heavy rain.  Showers of blessings might have been okay but the downpour I could do without.  (This is, however, better than 2008 when we had 2 feet of snow on the Monday of National Collection Week.)

Meadville collected over 900 boxes already today and there were several hundred at Conneaut Lake.  I could almost picture those hundreds of children a few months from now getting their special boxes after hearing a gospel presentation.

I have no idea how Erie or Warren collection centers or the other relay centers did today, but I'm trusting God for great things.

The victory is already secure.

Pint-Sized Packers

Yesterday I traveled about 80 miles south to Jim Urban's church for a packing party.  What a joy it was to see those boxes filling up and be there when they passed their goal and filled the truck with 7,264 boxes for Operation Christmas Child.

This evening brought another packing party--this time for the Kidz Praisz children's musical group at Grace Church.   I planned to arrive at the church at 5:30 but when I saw the light fading already at 4:45 I got nervous and left early.

We have no light in our storage container and even though I'd moved most of the items we'd need to the front of the container this morning I was still concerned about unloading in the dark.

God sent just the right number of volunteers and the six of us were a great team as we folded boxes and arranged the cartons of items on the gym floor.

At about 7:00 the children burst into the gym, fresh from their rehearsal and ready for action.  I didn't even get an exact count of our packing contingent, but I think there were about 35 or 40 of them (or maybe it just seemed like that many.)

It made me smile to see them so excited about choosing items for their boxes, and I was glad we'd decided to leave the cartons on the floor.  The kids loved crawling around and pawing through all the choices.

We had a hard time keeping up with labeling all their boxes and had to do some rearranging to get some of the lids to close, but in less than 45 minutes they'd packed 200 boxes to bless children in the name of Jesus.

We prayed before we packed their boxes, and I encouraged them to keep praying for the children who will open these boxes some months from now.

There will be nothing pint-sized about the love these boxes hold.