Last Day Off

This was my last day off of Thanksgiving vacation.  I always have a hard time knowing how to use these days when I'm off work--whether they should be productive or restful.

Now that the Operation Christmas Child boxes are gone, I had fun today packing a different kind of box.  This one was full of Christmas gifts for 16 children in an orphanage in Haiti.  It was fun to pack this box knowing that the missionaries we support will be able to give them to the children directly.

The first box I packed was too small to hold everything.  So I had to get a bigger box.  The second one was too big but that problem was easily remedied by filling it with more stuff.

I found a home for the 8 deflated soccer balls that I couldn't find ball pumps for.  Last night's shopping trip took me to four different stores to find the perfect 8 African-American Barbie dolls and God provided.  It was so much fun to stuff that carton with 33 pounds of stuffed animals and jewelry and cups and toothbrushes and coloring books and cars.

In the afternoon I sent out seven press releases to newspapers about the Operation Christmas Child local totals and I already got a response from an editor in Warren.  That's a real blessing.

But the best blessing of all came as I looked up and read the promises in Psalm 41:1-3.  Here's what God has to say:

"Blessed is the one who considers the poor!  In the day of trouble the Lord delivers him; the Lord protects him and keeps him alive; he is called blessed in the land; you do not give him up to the will of his enemies.  The Lord sustains him on his sickbed; in his illness you restore him to full health."

I claim this promise for my friends Sarah and Shawn who are traveling today to meet the special little girl they are adopting from Eastern Europe (the 3rd girl with special needs to be adopted into their family from that area.)

And I claim this promise for my friend Mary Damron who has been responsible for motivating millions of OCC shoeboxes to be packed and is now valiantly battling cancer.

I claim this promise for my tired OCC team member, another adoptive mother, who needs the strength to lead a two-hour rehearsal for a children's musical tonight (yikes!)

And I claim this promise for myself.

Giving Thanks

Our local newspaper asked readers to write about what they were thanking God for at this Thanksgiving season and my response was published on Saturday.  Here is what I wrote:

"I am most grateful that God invites us to join Him in His work in the world.  In my role as volunteer area coordinator for Operation Christmas Child I am privileged every November to see churches and community groups all around northwestern Pennsylvania come together to bless needy children around the world by packing simple, gift-filled shoe boxes.

It's amazing to me that our sovereign God who lacks nothing would allow us to participate with Him in changing lives through this project and others that bring hope and healing to so many.

Of all my many blessings, I cherish most this opportunity to join God in making a difference for those who have so little."

The Aftermath

The past weeks have been so busy with packing parties and speaking engagements and relay center visits that I've been just piling all the Operation Christmas Child paraphernalia in the spare room.

Today I spent some hours trying to sort and pare down all the papers and items. I took apart old church kits (all but last year's) and saved a pile of OCC posters, bumper stickers, etc.  I saved the outer folders to offer to churches that might want to use the pictures for bulletin boards or displays.

I filed media articles and meeting agendas and I separated supplies--balloons and pens and special report magazines and brochures and videos.

Then I followed some rabbit trails down memory lane as I perused old files from nearly a decade ago.  I wasn't a year-round Operation Christmas Child volunteer then, but I still spent a fair amount of time accumulating items to pack a few hundred boxes every year as a church project leader.  I actually thought I was busy with OCC then--ha!

All around the world there are Operation Christmas Child volunteers who have invested millions of hours in this project his year.  Even today thousands of volunteers were working at 7 processing centers around the country, inspecting boxes and preparing them for shipping.

And as my duties here in the US begin to slow for a few weeks, the National Leadership Teams and volunteers in the receiving countries are gearing up for the height of their busy season as they prepare to train volunteers and distribute shoeboxes.

Today I ordered 3600 filler items for next year's boxes even as I sorted through last year's chaos.

 I guess we're never really in the aftermath.

On the Eighth Day--Blessing My Socks Off

(singing)  On the eighth day of National Collection Week the good Lord gave to me eight bitten nails, seven volunteers, six relay centers, FIVE ANSWERED PRAYERS, four carton pallets, three wide rolls of tape, more than two full trucks, and another great collection victory.

This is by far my favorite day of the year--the final day of Operation Christmas Child's National Collection Week.  Hundreds of times--even thousands of times-- I prayed this year the same prayer, "God, please give us 40,000 boxes from Northwestern PA."  

Our team prayed.  We recruited.  We prayed.  We met.  We prayed. We worked.  We prayed.  We went on safaris for stuffed animals.  We prayed.  We spoke at churches.  We prayed.  We gave out brochures.  And.......we prayed.

And after all those days and weeks and months, today it came together in boxes full of cartons filled with precious gift-filled shoeboxes, aka Gospel Opportunities.

I spent the day doing heights and weights and vision testing on 40 kindergarten students.  I don't know who was more antsy--me or the kids.  None of us could contain ourselves.  Believe me, it's not easy to keep five-year-old kids focused on identifying tiny squares and circles and apples and houses when all you want to do is call your relay centers and FIND OUT WHAT THE NUMBERS ARE.  

Finally, at 3:30 I got the totals. 

And my socks flew off.

It was hard to contain myself as I headed to the local Chick-fil-A in Erie where Casey, the owner, and Tina, the marketing director, had graciously arranged to feed our team dinner for the "big reveal".  

After our terrific meal it was time to share the big news.  So I handed out five folders--each containing one digit of our team total.  Starting at the end of the number, we revealed the 5th digit (6), then the 4th digit (7), then the 3rd digit (3) and then---

We had the persons holding the folders with the 1st and 2nd digits reveal them simultaneously and the result was---

Praise God!  I just keep playing Matt Redman's "10,000 Reasons/Bless the Lord Oh My Soul" over and over.  

Only in my version it's 40,376 reasons.  

On the Seventh Day

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

It's hard to believe that another Operation Christmas Child total will be in the books by tomorrow.

I had some great conversations today with folks who came to bring in boxes.  Got a lead on a possible new relay center for next year, talked to the pastor of a small Spanish church who was so excited to do OCC for the first time, and took pictures for a dear family who learned about OCC when they read a blog about activities to do with your children for advent.  They brought 5 boxes--each packed by a family member--and I'm still laughing at the faces their little boy made when we tried to take the family's picture.

I've been working my calculator hard all day and adding and re-adding relay center numbers.  I don't have totals for four of my relay centers so the final outcome is still a mystery.

And there's still an hour or so of collection at some of my centers in the morning, so who knows?

I've been checking lists of last year's participating churches and looking to see who has not brought in their boxes yet.  I really hope everyone gets their boxes in on time because I don't want to be mailing in boxes again this year.

I feel like we're closing in on the goal but the victory isn't secured yet.  It kills me to know that there's enough stuff left in the storage container to pack more boxes but I just couldn't figure out a way to get more done.

If we miss this goal by less than 100, I may be forced to buy a battery-powered spotlight and pack boxes in that dark storage container tomorrow.

I'm not good at waiting.

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.