It's Here!

The countdown to Operation Christmas Child drop off week is here!!!!!

Got your boxes ready????

At our home church back we used to do Christmas in Shoeboxes for local outreaches. We have also visited the nursing home for the past several years to either sing with a choir or just ourselves. We've missed doing that. Since we have just moved, we did not really have a local ministry to be involved with this Christmas. No nursing home to visit or choir to sing in. You don't realize all the little things that make Christmas the holiday that it is until they are not there.

Well, this year Veggie Tales had a promotional on their Christmas video that shared about Operation Christmas Child (a Samaritan's Purse outreach). The kids really wanted to be a part of this. So I said, "Sure!" We went to the website and watched some of the videos of past OCC deliveries. We checked out the rules and details and found a drop off site in our area.

Then, we collected up empty shoe boxes and started doing a little shopping. The kids were totally excited about picking things out for other kids. When I came home one day and was trying to sort through the items (We are putting together six boxes.)... my third child exclaimed, "MOM! I just so hapy we are doing this!"

I cannot really describe the joy in his face. He was bursting with enthusiasm at giving stuff away! (He actually wanted to clean out his closet and toy box to send overseas... but we had to reign it in a bit.) This simple activity is really helping him and my other children put Christmas in perspective.

The drop off is this week! You can put your shoebox together tonight! (or find another ministry to be a part of this holiday season)

Here is the website if you want to check it out.
http://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/OCC/index/