Build-A-Box

https://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/giving/build-a-box

If you think you have missed your chance donating shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child, no worries!  I just found out you can shop for your box via the world wide web!  How cool is that??  Just head over to Samaritan's Purse and click and choose a gift box for a boy or girl that you wrap virtually.

I have been a volunteer at the Operation Christmas Child warehouses in North Carolina a couple of times.  It was soooo humbling to be the hands and feet of Christ from this end.  Everyday we would walk in and there would be a big white board telling you where the boxes were being sent for that day.  Imagine a million boxes all stacked on top of each other, they have been carefully packaged and prayed over.  There are different jobs to tackle, one of them is to inspect the box for anything harmful or liquid or meltable.  Samaritan's Purse stressed the importance of NOT altering the contents of the box.  If there are 13 toothbrushes in one box...LEAVE THEM IN THERE.  We have this need to evenly distribute the multiples but someone put that box together and the box should stay that way!  Throughout the day they will stop the volunteers and tell a story about how these boxes impact the lives of the children and families who receive them.  One story I remember was about a box that contained mostly socks.  Now as a mother I am thinking, 'separate the socks so more bare footed children have their tootsies covered,' but no, you gotta leave it like it is.  Now this little box travels further that I ever will, and lands in the hands of a young boy.  Now this boy happens to fish and does not use a fishing pole, just the fishing line, which tears up his hands and causes them to be painful and sore.  Socks are not just for feet friends.  This little guy used the socks to protect his hands as he pulled in the fishing line.  God totally knows what each box contains and whom it needs to go to.  I LOVE THAT!  There were so many faith filled stories that just made your heart sing and want to stay in that warehouse and pack boxes like Lucy and Ethel stuffing chocolate kisses in their mouths!

If you have not yet given unto the least of these this season yet, this is a wonderful way to bless someone.  At my son's school they asked that we send in donations and then they set up tables in the gym and spread everything out and then each child filled their box by selecting from the donations, how sweet is that!?

Merry Christmas,

E.W.