Shoebox Stories (2/2)

Here are more great stories for this year's shoebox collection!

• A lady came by the OCC kiosk at church and asked how she could help. I explained the needs and she wrote a check. She then reiterated her desire to help with anything - she had time because she had recently been laid off and was now pouring her energy on various ministries. When I looked at the check later, I saw that she made a very generous donation.
• Three ladies who had just run the Race for the Cure came straight to church to drop off their packed shoeboxes.
• The elementary school at our church chose Operation Christmas Child as one of their service projects.
  
• The entire 6th grader Sunday School class packed a bunch of boxes. 
• A lady told her family, neighbors, co-workers and friends about OCC, and she brought to church 29 packed shoeboxes!
• Our Girls in Action packed shoeboxes. The leaders' goal was 8 boxes. The girls packed 15 in about 30 minutes!
• The Acteens packed over 30 boxes. They wanted to do it after hearing a former shoebox recipient from Russia speak over the summer and being deeply touched by her testimony.
  
• A lady packed her boxes and also dropped off a big bag of stuffed animals for other boxes!
• Remember the 36 empty boxes I gave our middle school teacher? She and her students packed over 170 boxes! And two of the girls raised funds to pack - coincidentally - 36 of them just by themselves!

I was - and still am - utterly amazed!

Shoeboxes Stories (1/2)

I hope you have had a wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas!

It's been a very long time since my last post, so I am making a final push before we welcome the new year. :) But the real motivation is to share with you some of the many wonderful things that happened during the weeks before Thanksgiving when we were collecting shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child (OCC). Enjoy!

• Our church was very supportive of Operation Christmas Child and did a great deal of promotion! 
• Since early Fall, I was collecting empty shoeboxes and a friend was wrapping them with Christmas paper. We hoped to have a steady supply of wrapped shoeboxes for our church members to take and fill. All was well until shortly before the packing party in early November, when I was having trouble getting shoeboxes. My contact at a local store who had been collecting empty shoeboxes for me told me her boss began tossing the boxes without explanation and would not allow her to save any shoeboxes (thankfully, she was not in any trouble with her job). Just as I was running out of boxes, and three days before the packing party, a couple of Sunday School teachers donated 80 shoeboxes to the packing party! 
• From our church, a lady who is blind packed 12 boxes. She started packing after last Christmas!
• I collected empty shoeboxes at work, and the response was wonderful! My colleagues dropped off boxes; one even made a monetary donation on the spot as soon as I told him why I was collecting shoeboxes.
• My friend who owns a salon collected a box full of donations from her customers.
• The packing party was well-attended. We had young children, singles, newlyweds, expectant parents, parents and grandparents!
• We did not have enough donations to pack all 80 boxes at the packing party, and at the end, we had about 36 boxes left. But the next day, a teacher from our church's middle school told me they were once again going to pack 150 shoeboxes and needed as many shoeboxes as possible. I gave her all 36 boxes. 
• On the same day, the Sunday School teachers who donated the 80 boxes led their very excited 4th Grade Sunday School class downstairs to the OCC kiosk to drop off their packed shoeboxes. Seeing the excited children coming with their boxes in their hands brought tears to my eyes. I could just see how excited the children receiving these shoeboxes would be.

More stories to come!