This Reminds Me

Archive for the ‘Samaritan’s Purse’ Category

Several friends gathered tonight to pack shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child. Julia last counted 77 boxes about 30 minutes before we quit.  So I’m not really sure how many are piled on the dining room table.

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:

When a generous friend give me something for Samaritan’s Purse Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes, I don’t open the box or bag if it’s sealed.  I just shove into the Rubbermaid cabinets in the game room and know that when we’re ready to organize it all, I’ll see it then.

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.

Until I went digital in 2003 – I was always a “Nikon gal,” going back to my 1979  Nikon EM (“The plastic Nikon,” as my friend and professional photographer Steve sniffed).  My digital cameras have all been Kodak models, largely because -  I confess – I like the software.

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?

You know those number/word puzzles that are so much fun to do?  The ones that show the significance of a number?  Like:

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.