I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for the holidays! Christmas music is already playing on the local radio station, we read Christmas stories before bed last night, we’re going to get started on our decorating this weekend and last night we did one of our favorite pre-holiday activities.
I helped Ella “finish” off her drawings – she can’t quite draw glasses and pigtails just yet.
Have you heard of Operation Christmas Child? Each year, people from all over the country pack shoe boxes full of Christmas goodies that are then transported to children all over the world. Can you imagine your children not getting any gifts on Christmas morning? What if their gift pile that morning could all fit into one plastic box?
I have had the pleasure of packing boxes each Christmas since SD & I first got married. For several years, we even traveled to Atlanta and worked in the warehouse inspecting boxes, adding filler items and preparing them for their journey. It is such a rewarding experience. I challenge you to find a way to volunteer this year {or next} and pack a box with your children.
Ella got to pack a box as a part of her mission friends class this year, but we always pack one at home, too. This year, we packed two little girly boxes – one for her and one for Sophie. We filled it with so many fun things and as excited as we are to give it, my heart aches for the little ones for whom these might be their only possessions. I challenged Ella to make a sacrifice this year and she picked out two sets of unopened Barbie clothes that she received as birthday gifts. She told me that she didn’t want to give them away, “but it’s the right thing, mama.” That makes a mama’s heart smile.
We will begin praying for them each day and hoping that they are lead to Christ through Samaritan’s Purse and their ministries. We include our address and a note reminding them that God loves them. We will hope that they write us a letter or send us a picture so we can put a face with our expectations. And on Christmas morning, when we are surrounded by more gifts than we’ll know what to do with… we will be so thankful for an opportunity to make some other little girls smile.
This year we included art supplies {crayons, coloring book, stickers and hello kitty pens}, play doh, a slinky, a small wooden puzzle, silly putty, lip gloss, toothbrush and toothpaste, a barbie and a change of clothes, a harmonica, headbands, lollipop, pixie sticks, dum-dums and a candy necklace. We topped off our boxes with a picture from Ella, our mailing address and $7 to ship the box around the world. Our total cost for each box was around $25.
Click here to visit one of my FAVORITE bloggers and her post on Operation Christmas Child.
