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?

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…..

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.   

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.

Dorothy (pink jacket) bagged candy last year, and immediately volunteered to bag again this year.   You gotta love someone who steps up to the un-glamorous  job that needs to be done.  Linda (stripes) is the world’s best organizer and greatly improved the flow of materials in the game room. I need her to come over and organize my whole house.

Sherry donated lots of Beanie Babies, so she could quickly find a particular one tor a boy or girl aged 2 – 4, 5 – 9 or 10 -14.  Each Beanie was bagged, too, to keep it clean. Takes awhile to do that bagging, but we think it’s worth it to know the cloth won’t be dirty.  Plus the bag becomes part of the gift.

Dana rooted around in the toys to find the right ones for her boxes. I used to envy Dana her electronic bible – until I got an iPhone and downloaded that app. Love it! Now if I just had her bible knowledge to better use the app…..

Barb (green) was here organizing last week, and Lynn (red) is a packing pro from years past.   They’re the Proverbs 31 kind of women that can “do anything.”

Dorothy – our Wednesday night WOW leader – is as good a packer as she is a teacher. And that’s pretty darned good.

Jenae – who compressed/bagged shirts last week – was busy packing around them this week.  The big items – like compressed shirts – go in the boxes first, then the littler stuff (pens, pencils, sharpeners, erasers, candy, toys, combs, etc.) go around them.  That’s sort of like life – take care of the big stuff and fit in the little stuff as you can.  Jenae has two teenagers and works as a school vice-princpal, so she’s intimate with the “big stuff.”

The girls and I will be packing Thursday and Friday evenings, and part of Saturday – when my good friend Renee is coming over with her kids and their stuff to do a few more.  We’re planning to all the boxes to church on Sunday.  I’m thinking it’s going to be a “two-vehicle Sunday.”

It’s easy to lose sight of the “why” of the shoe boxes amidst all the activity.  So here’s a reminder of the “why”, straight from Samaritan’s Purse website:

The fabulous WOW “Women on Wednesday” bible study class to which I belong met here tonight.  We organized.  And saw it all.

Johnnie, Linda and Barbara – folding/compressing T-shirts into Ziploc bags and squeezing out all the air.  Keeps the shirts clean, plus the bag becomes part of the gift.  All this prep work takes hours and hours.

Jenae repackaged 36 pairs of tri-pack “Bob the Builder” underwear, plus compressed T-shirts and packaged knit caps.  This after working all day – as Johnnie, Linda and Barbara did, too.  I’ve long said that a group of busy women can work circles around any other group – period.

Julia’s been my biggest “daughter helper” this year.  She doesn’t have the after-school jobs and crushing homework loads of her sisters.   She’s been known to bounce a ball or two – just to make sure they work, of course.

I do have the world’s most generous friends.  It was crazy timing – my friends Mary Anne and Shelley both called while we were organizing, saying, “I’m sending more!”    Lisa, Laura, Charlotte, Bart, Renee, Stephanie,  Jo and everybody else – you know who you are.  And one day, I want a seat at each of your banquet tables. Everyone who gives humbles me. They don’t get fancy plaques or commemorative T-shirts or verbose thank-you letters signed by someone important.  The people around them have no idea how generous they are.   There’s really only One who knows.  Of course – he’s the One who matters.

I think every box gets a knit cap this year, thanks to Keith’s mom.  The caps are all ziplocked and ready to pack. We also have enough really cool nylon backpacks and/or mesh bags for each box to have one.

Aren’t these colorful tubs neat?  Found them on clearance at Sam’s for $4.81 per set of two.  I bought four sets, then asked my friend Johnnie to grab four more.  Julia created the signs on the sides, like “Girl Toys” and “School Supplies.”   They really hold the stuff, and I can just stack them inside each other for easy storage year-to-year.

Halloween candy goes on sale Monday.  I plan to be at Wal-Mart plenty early and empty some shelves.  Then we pack – that’s the fun part!  All this preparation – while necessary – is definitely the dirt work.

Julia’s been pressing me to promise we’ll “do more” than last year’s 117 boxes.  Truly – that just doesn’t concern me.  We’ll do as many as we’re supposed to do.  We’ll pack what we’re supposed to pack.  That’s our part.  Then we hand them off to Samaritan’s Purse, and God gets them to the kids that are supposed to have them.

The kids getting them – well, that’s something I really would like to see.  Someday.  Maybe.

But for now, I just look around this game room and say, “WOW! “  And look forward to packing with the girls and my friends next week.

But my latest Kodak  – a 2005 5.0 MP 7590 – has been sputtering with its shuttering for several weeks – slow and hard to focus, turning off by itself, etc.   I knew I needed a new camera, but didn’t want to spend the money on a new one, or take the time to learn it.

Keith removed the decision from my shooting finger by surprising me with a new camera for our anniversary.  A Nikon!  An SLR!  With a fabulous 18 – 105 lens (be still my heart!)  But dang – the thing has an instruction book an inch thick (literally).  I can barely squeeze in my 20 minutes of bus reading every day.   When exactly was I going to find the time to ingest the college course necessary to use the sucker?   I confess:  The thought exhausted me.  So the poor thing sat on my dresser – alone, unused, unloved – for more than a week.

Tonight was “Harvest Festival” at church – a pitch-in dinner followed by a fantastic choral program.  I hadn’t planned on taking pictures, but our music minister – whom I adore – seemed disappointed when he asked me if I’d brought my camera.  So Keith bolted his dinner, then raced home to get my camera.  My new camera.  My new Nikon.  Which I literally had not touched, for fear of the massive learning curve required.

It was time for some on-the-job training. Ten minutes’ worth before the program began.  No pressure.

The full choir and orchestra, from the back of the church.  Mono pod on a pew chair using the wide-angle 18 setting.  It felt so, so good to be twisting an SLR lens again.

Buds in the choir.  Mono pod.  Telephoto (105) lens setting.

After the service – Hannah carrying Samaritan’s Purse boxes for crating.  Our church is one of two San Antonio collection centers.  Hand-held; mid-range.

We crated about 1400 boxes Wednesday night.  There were probably 1000 more to crate tonight.  Need a ceiling-bouncing flash to illuminate the distant people.  I’ll have to get that figured out.

I confess:  As busy as the next few weeks will be, my Nikon would probably have sat unused on my dresser until after the holidays.  But as it is – I had to use it tonight, so…..

Thanks, Phil for motivating me.

Lois is getting her wisdom teeth out tomorrow.  I’ll have some reading time as I wait.

I confess – I’m thinking there’s a manual I need to read.

Confession is good for the soul, doncha know?

88 = P.K.  (88 = Piano Keys)

200D = F. P. G. I. M. (200 Dollars for Passing Go in Monopoly)

3 = B.M. : S.H.T.R (3 = Blind Mice:  See How they Run)

Well, I have a new number/word puzzle in that genre.  And its number is very significant.

117 = S.B. – F. R. K. T. C.

Can you guess it?

Give up?  Okay.

117 = Shoe Boxes – For Real Kids This Christmas

Thanks to generous friends, 117 real kids will be getting shoe box gifts this Christmas.  Eight of the boxes feature tracking labels, so we’ll even know where those eight boxes are distributed.  Over all the years, we’ve known where only one box was gifted – in 1995 to the “Family Prosenc” in Trovlje, Slovenija.  Since then, we’ve been careful about not including a return address.  We want no resources expended on thank you notes.

The breakdown for this year:

Our box breakdown for 2009:

And how we got to 117:

Look at this mess!  The fabulous Women on Wednesday class to which I belong came over instead of conducting bible study to help organize and begin packing.  I love those women.  Truly. Sure, the girls and I buy stuff all year long – but we never bought all this.  Most gifts – crayons, boxes of unopened Happy Meal toys, T-shirts, etc. – arrived from friends at work, often anonymously.  I literally don’t know what we have until I open the storage cabinets, slice open the boxes and start pulling it all out.   Other gifts arrived from long-time friends like Shelley, who had boxes delivered straight to our house. The generous folks who sent toys, school supplies, clothing items, etc. – and/or money for shipping (GREATLY appreciated!) – they know who they are, and I won’t embarrass them here by calling them out. They know Who knows, and that’s all that matters.

Dana and Dorothy D, performing the un-glamorous job of opening packs of underwear and socks, rolling them tight and placing individual pairs in Ziploc bags with all the air squeezed out.  We treat any cloth “anything” like this, to keep the item clean, take up less space and provide a gift of the Ziploc bag.  Doing this is not quick.  This.  Takes.  For.  Ever.

My girls know:  All non-chocolate Halloween candies extorted – er – collected plus all gum goes into the boxes.  We also buy a load at Wal-mart the day after Halloween, which Hannah bagged the same day.  Generous friends gifted more later, so Brook and Dorothy N quarter-filled sandwich-sized Ziploc bags to go into the boxes.  Most boxes got two or three small candy bags.

Cutting strips of toothbrushes apart for individual packing…again, not glamorous,  but necessary.  Thanks, Lynne, for being so sharp!

The son of friend Renee – Arthur – has been coming over on Saturday for a few years to pack.  Actually – he was our inspiration before he was old enough to pack.  His sister Allison would walk around the boy gifts asking aloud, “Now, what would Arthur like?”  That’s a box of knitted stocking caps, each made  by Keith’s mom, and each Ziploc’ed with the air squeezed out.  We had enough for every child to get one.  I used to stress about those caps going somewhere really hot, like Africa, before I was told by a member of the delivery team, “Oh, no, the kids love there love them.  Keeps their heads from sunburning when they’re picking.”

This year, Arthur brought his friend Tim (left).   Arthur’s (wonderful) mother Renee is pictured on the right, Ziploc’ing T-shirts.  Does your church have leftover VBS shirts?   Does your employer have some shirts moldering on a dusty shelf?  Those are prime box prizes!  Renee and her kiddos also haunt the 75% off sales at the Target Dollar Spot.

117 boxes – Yes, a record number (previous high was 95 in 2007), but it’s never been about the number.  Never. It’s always been about doing as many as we were supposed to do.

What we learned this year:

-  The Container Store has the best boxes – period.  Sturdy, thick heavy clear plastic with close-fitting lids that snap tightly.    They’re also the most pricey – but we caught a sale with an extra 30% off and free delivery to the store (plus Upromise credit.)   Made them pennies more expensive that the cheapies.  I bought 35.  I wish I’d bought 100.

-  Before you buy a box – test it.  Does the lip snap tightly?  Is the plastic rigid enough to hold water, which is the most commonly-observed use for the boxes?  We had some donated this year that were really skuzzy.  The plastic was flimsy and the lids had virtually no tension.  Rachel wondered if they’d actually withstand the trip overseas.  So we decided to use them to sort/store gifts and quit using them to pack.

-  My WOW friend Linda figured out that pre-packing crayons, a bag of candy and a Christmas greeting (4″ x 6″ photo with message) in boxes was a good use of time as everyone else Ziploc’ed  cloth materials, pulled price stickers, etc.  Dang.  Why didn’t we ever think of that before?  So handy to grab an already-started box with those gender-neutral items you’re sure to need.

Samaritan’s Purse hopes/expects to distribute 8M shoe boxes this year.  Compared to 8M – 117 is nothing, like .000014625%.  But the thing is – those 117 boxes will go to real kids.  With real faces.  And real hearts, ready to hear the true Christmas story.  The boxes don’t materialize out of thin air.  If they’re not packed and shipped – then the kids don’t get them.

117 = S.B. – F. R. K. T. C.

It’s that simple.

And that significant.

All I can say is – I have the world’s most generous friends, without a doubt.

So stay tuned for box count announcement.

In the meantime – we indulged in a “station break” at the Region 12 Choir Concert in which Hannah performed as 11th chair Alto.  She’s the (spunky) brunette in the very top row, 7th from the right.   She and her fellow Bush Middle School 8th grade girls’ choir members wore black formals, of which there were a disproportionate number peppered among the students representing 37 South Texas schools.

Listen to the sound of my voice

Can you hear the beat of my heart

Listen to the questions I have

Listen to me

It’s all very simple to see what we need

Give us hope

We’ll never hear the voices of the kids that receive shoe boxes.  We’ll never hug them and hear their hearts beat, or ponder their questions.

But maybe.

Just maybe.

We can give a little hope.

If you helped in any way with shoe boxes this year, know that you have that shared that hope.  You’ll never get a thank-you note, or something colorful to tack up on your fridge.  No swollen-bellied mother is going to stand behind her ragged child,  point directly at you and hiss, “Now you go say ‘thank you.’”   Nobody is going to pat you on the back at church.  There may be only One who knows what you’ve done – how you’ve practiced true religion.

We are the future

Help us believe

Give us hope

And we’ll show you the way.

The day after Christmas means hitting the outlet mall.

But before we get there…..the day after Halloween means snatching up a cart full of of half-price candy at Wal-Mart for Samaritan’s Purse Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes.

Yes, it has begun.  Again.

We bought cheap Rubbermaid cabinetry at Home Depot last year before Hannah could move into what was the guest room, with its lovely empty closet holding all this stuff. Today I am just dragging stuff out. Lois, Hannah and Julia filled dozens of sandwich-sized Ziplog baggies with candy before their afternoon choir practices today.  Lots more to fill. We pack only plastic shoeboxes – none of that “gift wrap a paper box” nonsense.  For about $1@, the plastic box becomes part of the gift, and is far more likely to survive the journey overseas.  The most commonly-observed use for the boxes?  To haul water.

School supplies, anyone?  My friend Lisa reminded me years ago, “It does no good to send pencils without a sharpener.”  This year, she and Matt sent 101 boxes of crayons (among other things) – no sharpener needed. I am blessed with the world’s most generous friends – there is no doubt in my mind. Yes, you know who you are.

The very beginning of organization – girls’ pile, boys’ pile, either pile. It’s an unholy mess right now.
My “Women on Wednesday” class is coming over Wednesday night to help pull labels, ditch packaging, organize piles, etc.   We may even pack a few.  And long-time friend Renee is coming over Saturday with her daughter and friends to pack.  And, of course, we’ll be working on them at home through the week.

If you’ve ever wanted to pack a shoebox for a needy child – give it a whirl!  It’s so much fun.   It gives joy not only to the child, but also to the giver.  The day you pack.  The day the child receives it.

And every day thereafter.