This Reminds Me

Archive for the ‘Samaritan’s Purse’ Category

They’re done.  This morning we delivered our 179 2011 Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes to their collection center which is, coincidentally, our church.  Soon they’ll be packed in cartons for transport to the Samaritan’s Purse warehouse on the south side of San Antonio.  From there, they’ll be crated and the crates shrink-wrapped on pallets for trucking to the Denver distribution center.  From there – well, any of our boxes could ultimately arrive in any one of 110 countries.  We know our boxes have made it to Slovenia and Mexico – otherwise, we have no idea.

179 shoe boxes breaks down to:

179 shoe boxes also means at minimum (usually more than):

537 rubber bands

1074 small toys, brushes, etc.

179 toothbrushes/ toothpaste

358 bagged clothing items – T-shirts, socks, undies, caps, etc.

179 decks of cards

179 foldable bags of some sort – mesh backpack or whatever

716 pencils

179 sharpeners

179 erasers

358 pens

179 boxes of crayons

1074 plastic zipping bags

4,296 bagged pieces of non-chocolate candy and gum

….plus innumerable small “fill in the holes” tops, magnifying glasses, hair barrettes, temporary tattoos, etc.

179 shoe boxes also means:  The chance to catch up with great friends like Renee and her kiddos Allison and Arthur.  They’ve helped pack for years – this year, 21 boxes. Renee also put out the word to some media buds, which is how we got the KSAT interview last week and now…..

……Operation Christmas Child is going to be featured on our local Fox affiliate “Daytime at 9″ TV program Wednesday, 11/16. Fox’s Juan Pardo (shown “mike’ing me up”) came to our house Saturday to talk to me as their “Woman of the Week,” and also to….

…..film us completing a few shoe boxes.  This publicity is great, and I love it but it’s not about “me.”  It’s about Operation Christmas Child.  I hope that comes through in the interview.  This is not false modesty, or some cute little ploy to have my friends pile on compliments.  I know myself.  I’m not some super woman with a perfect spirit and a heart always focused on God.   Operation Christmas Child has long outgrown “me” anyway.   There’s no way, no how I could do this without good friends who donate so much time, money and materials – and by the way, several of them have explicitly told me not to mention their names. They’re not looking for glory. They know what they’ve done.  Anyway, I am thrilled with this publicity – for the ministry, not for myself.  You can bet, though, that I’m going to watch “Daytime at 9″ on Wednesday, 11/16!  Oh, yeah!   

179 shoe boxes means filling the entire back of  Keith’s two-rows-of-seats-folded down Expedition, plus (not shown) the back of my mini-van.

179 shoe boxes means lots of unloading in the church parking lot.

179 shoe boxes means a good start in one of five San Antonio collection centers.    Find your nearest collection center here.

Rod  – our missions minister – used one of our boxes as an aid this morning, encouraging families to support Operation Christmas Child.  There’s still plenty of time to make a box!  Or two!  See the packing guidelines here.

So 179 shoe boxes means all kinds of things, depending on your perspective.

The perspective I care about – that my WOW class cares about – that Renee and many other friends care about – is detailed in Matthew 19:13 and James 1:27 .

Christmas morning – when we are assembling our breakfast tacos and wading through a small mountain of wrapping paper – we’ll take a minute and thank God for the opportunity to share with 179 children “somewhere.”  It’s likely they’ve never gotten a gift before.  It’s very likely they’ll use their plastic shoe boxes to carry water.  It’s almost certain it’s the only “thing” they’ll get for Christmas.

So the boxes matter.

Know what I mean?

News Flash!  Samaritan’s Purse Operation Christmas Child boxes were featured on the 6 p.m. KSAT Channel 12 news tonight.

KSAT reporter David Sears came to our house today to learn about the boxes.  “It’s so easy!”  Yes, David, it is!  Anyone can do a box.  Watch the video here.

WE had boxes to show him because the fabulous ladies of the Women on Wednesday class I attend came over last night for pizza and packing.

Oh, the bagging!  So much bagging.  Friends (l-r) Dorothy, Johnnie and Dana started with the candy, which I don’t buy until after Halloween.  Gotta be half-price.

Johnnie displays a good candy bag.  No chocolate.  Air squeezed out.  Nice variety.  Just one handful, so it can be shoved into crevices or laid flat on top of a nearly-complete box.

New friend Kendra – who is legally blind – also bagged candy.  I often have “reasons” I can’t do things for others.  Such good, good “reasons.”  Right?

Friends Dorothy and Lori bagged T-shirts to start.  An old friend sent us 100+ new – though unusable – shirts from school sporting events.  They’ll be prized elsewhere.  Kudos to my friend Lisa in Houston, who used her HEB employee discount to buy us ALL the bags we needed – plus extra!  Hundreds of bags which I’ve always had to buy previously.  Lisa, virtual hugs to you for all the boxes that arrived at my desk through the year.

We used what will likely be the last supply of hand-knitted caps from Keith’s mom.  Julia found one she really liked and asked to keep it.  Julia did much of the organizing of the stuff for the boxes.  I don’t mean she sort of delicately placed one little thing here, and one thing there, isn’t that precious?  I mean she dumped material in tubs by major category, then arranged the tubs, thinking workflow of the room.  She explained it all to me, and I agreed with what she did.  This is sooooo my child!

Friends Sarah and Jenae bagged bandanas.  The bandanas are really colorful, and lay nice and flat.   Every cloth item is bagged to squeeze out air, keep it clean and make the bag part of the gift.

I think friend Roxanne packed almost all of the boxes we did last night for kiddos aged 2 – 4.  That’s a tough age for which to pack.  She’s holding the identifier we put in each box – a 4″ x 6″ picture made from a PowerPoint that tells the child who sent the box and the city in which they live.  This isn’t ego.    It’s joy for the child to know this.

Packing Mania.  Walk around the room – get a picture, shirt, bag, cards, toothbrush, toothpaste, crayons, pencils, toys – then bring the box over for labeling, banding and stacking.  Notice Lois is filling a clear plastic shoebox.   That’s the only kind we use.  And not the Dollar Store variety, but instead the good ones from Costco, Sams or the Container Store.  The most commonly-observed use of the shoebox is to haul water.  Cardboard won’t haul water.  And neither will ulta-cheap, wobby plastic.

The young legs of Hannah and her friend L ran boxes downstairs as they were finished.  In recent years, I’ve understood what my mom used to tell me, “Your legs are younger than mine.”

One hundred and thirty Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes are stacked on the dining room table now – the same number we completed last year.  But we’re not finished.

Stay tuned!  More to come…..

K-Love 91.3 and Samaritan’s Purse – Operation Christmas Child hosted their first-ever city-wide San Antonio shoebox packing party today in the the gym of Shearer Hills Baptist Church.

Until six years ago, I listened to gospel and traditional hymns exclusively.  Mercy Me won me over with “Spoken For” – now I like a mix.  K-Love plays contemporary music only, so I have to rely on my CD’s and MP3′s for doses of the Abyssinian Baptist Choir,  Uncle Dave Macon, Acapella,  etc.

More than 400 volunteers dropped off packed shoe boxes, or packed a few on-site.  We also crated boxes dropped-off earlier.

Look familiar? We could fit 13 of the nicest plastic boxes in a carton, or 22 of the fold-out, red’n'green Samaritan’s Purse paper shoe boxes.  I just hate paper shoe boxes because they simply cannot last – and they sure can’t haul water.   I’ve written to Samaritan’s Purse twice suggesting they create a joint marketing agreement with a plastic shoe box manufacturer, like Sterlite or Rubbermaid.  Co-brand the shoe boxes – and tell us where to buy them.  Make sure that co-brand includes the URL of Operation Christmas Child. Then design the packing carton to hold ‘x’ boxes packed ‘this way.’  Sigh.  Maybe the third time’s the charm?  I’ll write again this week.  Franklin Graham called me once – maybe he will again.   

When I wasn’t making a nuisance of myself with the camera, I helped assemble and fill crates with finished boxes. The crates go to the warehouse to be packed on 18-wheelers bound for Denver.  In Denver, each box will be briefly examined, then a small story book of the real Christmas story – in the intended child’s language – goes in the top of each box.  From Denver – our boxes could go anywhere Samaritan’s Purse works.  We know they’ve been to Eastern Europe and Mexico.

K-Love listeners started showing up a few minutes before the broadcast start time of 10 a.m., and were still coming at the official finish time – 12N.   Scout troops, high school clubs, families with children of all ages – they just kept coming, eager to help.  One woman came in to drop off a lovely scarf her very ill daughter had knitted.  “Please make sure this gets packed.  Please.”  It did.

I told the assignment coordinator – “My daughter has done every job you’ve got for years.  Give her anything.”  Hannah unpacked mounds of costume jewelry, and bagged pieces in draw-string, glittery bags.  She was forever motioning me over to her table.  “Mom, someone put some toothbrushes in here.  Go give these to the toiletry table.”  “Mom, I need scissors to cut these packages.”  On my way, Hannah, on my way!

K-Love stopped everyone about every 30 minutes for prayer.

And they’re outta here!  How many packed/crated today?  I don’t know yet.  Hundreds, certainly.

What’s riding in the back of that truck is Christmas – the whole thing – for hundreds of children all over the world who cannot possibly repay anyone for the bit of joy they will receive.

Joy to the world.

Yep.  I think I’ve heard that somewhere before.   

Yesterday afternoon – thanks to my good friend Renee and her two kiddos – we finished packing Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes.

Last night, we did one last quality check as we label-taped, banded, stacked and tallied the shoe boxes.  Rachel also crushed/cut all the cardboard storage/shipment boxes for recycling.  (“Mom, how many ARE there?”)

The final count:

Total:  130 boxes!  Julia was pleased, because she felt compelled to top the 117 boxes from last year.   I love it – but I don’t feel compelled.  I think we’ll do as many as we’re supposed to do.  (But the bigger number did make me smile.)

To get them to church this morning, we had to fill Rachel’s trunk….

….plus my hatch and back seat.  Lois drove the van to church, by the way.  She’ll be getting her license soon.  Then she can run errands for her sainted mother.  I’m sure that will please her as much as it does Rachel.

Everybody got to help carry.  Several friends grabbed one or two (or five or six) on their way into the building.  Julia did more “running” this season than did any of us.  She carried at least 100 of the 130 boxes downstairs to the dining room table.  Plus she’s turned into a good little bargain hunter.  (“Mom – for the kids?”)  Quite a change from the child who - in 2006 – could barely stand to give anything away.

Hannah stacked them all in the Welcome Center, sorting by box type.  We’ve learned over the years to stack by box type – less likely to topple.  Last night I removed every single leftover box from Rubbermaid cabinets where I shove this stuff all year.  I matched boxes and lids, some of which – because we use boxes to store, too – were a decade old.  Any unmatched lids/boxes got tossed. I bagged identical lids, and set them inside the matching boxes to store for next year.  In 2011, we’re going to use these “stray” boxes first.  Container Store and Costco/Sam’s boxes really are the best – clearest, thickest plastic with tightest-fitting lids.

Thanks again to everyone who’s helped provide a gift for a needy child this year.

You know who you are.

You don’t get anything in return.  No lovely hand-written note, no plaque with your name on it, no gushy speech.

But you know.

And I am humbled and thankful to know you.