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!

Shoeboxes!

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! So sorry, it's been a long time since my last post. This semester has been quite busy, but there is much for which to be thankful!

Before Thanksgiving, as usual, Hubby and I dropped off Operation Christmas Child shoebox gifts. This year, with the effort of many from our church, middle school, and friends, neighbors and co-workers, we dropped off 520 packed boxes on Sunday!

This is the most we have collected so far! I can't express with words how thankful I am to you for packing a box or donating your time, money, filler items etc. Your response has been amazing!

I have told Hubby and several friends that I was secretly praying for 500 packed shoeboxes this year so that 500 children would receive gifts and hear the Gospel this Christmas season. For a while, it was an unrealistic goal. But God never took this number away, and I saw before my eyes how He accomplished this goal by raising up His people to get involved. With God, all things are possible!

Thank you once again for being a big part of Operation Christmas Child. There are many great stories to tell and I hope to share some of them with you soon!

Remembering in Hope

Since the early 1990s, I have been "traveling" to New York City every year for the US Open through TV. The US Open takes place at the National Tennis Center in Queens during the two weeks that straddle the Labor Day weekend. I remember quite fondly that when I was still in Hong Kong, because of the time difference, I would get up extra early on the second Monday morning after the Labor Day weekend to catch the men's single's final as much as I could before school.

In 2001, the men's championship match took place on September 9. By that point, I was studying in the United States so I watched the match on TV that Sunday night. Two days later, on the morning of September 11, I was home alone (my roommates were at work). I remember that morning as a beautiful, sunny day with clear blue sky. The TV and the computer were not on, so I was completely oblivious to the tragedy unfolding in New York City, Washington DC and Shanksville, until my friends and family called and I turned on the TV.

Like many, I was shocked, saddened and unsure of what was happening. I had just "come back" from New York City after the US Open. I still remember shots of the beautiful New York City skyline during the tennis programming. That evening, my roommates, friends and I gathered at home to support each other and to make sense of what had happened while wondering what would come next, knowing quite well that life would not be the same.

Just before the fifth anniversary of 9/11, I had a chance to travel to New York and I visited the World Trade Center site. It was a large wound. Life went on, but the site served as a reminder of what had happened. Since then, I had become an American citizen and 9/11 became more meaningful to me. Most of those who died in the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and on Flight 93 were my fellow citizens. So were the first responders who risked their own lives to save others, and the military who had gone on to fight for freedom since then.

This year, as usual, I have "come back" to New York for the US Open. The skyline is not the same as the one I saw ten years ago, and in many ways, our lives have not been the same. However, God is still the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. As we remember 9/11, the victims and their families, we can remember in hope, knowing that while we experienced much sadness ten years ago (and even now), we can hold on to the eternal hope that comes through Jesus Christ alone.