Samaritan’s Purse: Operation Christmas Child

The Gift of a Shoebox

Over Thanksgiving holiday, “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas” will have an entirely different connotation in America.  People will hustle and bustle in frenzied mad dashes to the best deals for the must have desired Christmas gifts.  I grin knowing my Christmas shopping will be completed.  Thanksgiving Day I will usher in the holiday season with a cup of hot cocoa, Miracle of 32^nd Street and recipes of sweet indulgences awaiting creation in the upcoming season.  Or is that the recipients in anticipation?  Having prayed over each heart filled shoebox and the child God will lead it to, I thank the Lord for giving me the means to send gifts to His precious children somewhere in the world.  Like a child in wonder of wrapped presents under the tree, I will anxiously await the email revealing the location my shoebox gifts are destined for.

 

 

I first learned of Operation Christmas Child five years ago I when I happen across an article sharing a remarkable story of inspiration.  Eight year old Evilyn Pinnow desired for a way to help the poor and had heard about Operation Christmas Child.  She began a shoebox club that today has over 80 children meeting monthly to fill shoeboxes.  The club has grown from the first one hundred boxes filling her parent's garage and now meets at her home church.  I cherished the thought of filling shoeboxes with gifts that would travel to a child around the world.  It has become a ministry for me, one I can work on year round, that I have long hoped to share with others. 

What a rewarding sense of holiday spirit gathering together to pack surprises, treats and supplies for children all over the world.  Children color beautiful pictures and write letters that introduce who they are, where they are from and end with precious wishes of good will.  One year I was astonished as my gifts were part of the first time delivery to children in Iran!  Several years ago I was shopping for a toy to place in each box and thought, “School supplies?  Who wants school supplies for Christmas?”  I was greatly humbled as I watched video clips from children whom just received their Christmas Shoebox.  Over and over again, joyful faces spoke with utmost appreciation for pencils, paper and reusable lunch bags, items I take for granted.  Needless to say, once the stores began the back to school sales and teacher appreciation week rolled around, I purchased and collected just about every school supply I could think of and was blessed with four solar calculators to include in the older children’s boxes!

 

 This year’s National Collection Week is November 18-25.  I so desire to extend an invitation to all interested in joining me at my home for “Good News, Great Joy” packing party.  I will be packing my shoeboxes Saturday November 16 beginning at 10 AM.  Anyone and everyone is invited to come over and join me as I listen to Christmas music, craft cards, write letters, enjoy tasty treats and pack shoeboxes full of fun and needed gifts.   Bring a favorite snack to share, Christmas CD, shoeboxes and all your items to pack.  I will also have a table set up with many supplies for children to write letters or make Christmas cards to include in to shoeboxes.  You can also include a photo of your family and provide an address.  The child receiving your gift may write back to you.  If you’ve never filled shoeboxes, to get started, decide on whether you want to fill a shoebox for a girl or boy and then choose an age category:

 

2 – 4 years              5 – 9 years               10 – 14 years

 
Here are a few suggested items:

            Toys:  stuffed animals, cars and trucks, dolls, yo-yo’s, harmonicas, jump ropes, blocks, balls, travel size magna doodle or etch-a-sketch, slinky

            School Supplies: solar calculators, pens, pencils and sharpener, markers, writing pads of paper, crayons, drawstring fabric backpack, ruler, protractor, reusable lunch bag

            Hygiene Items:  toothbrushes, mild bar soap (in a plastic bag), comb/brush, washcloth, toothpaste, tissues 

(Dentists are great resources and very willing to donate toothbrush/toothpaste!) 

            Other:  socks, ball caps, sunglasses, hair clips, toy jewelry, watches, flashlights (with extra batteries), books, coloring books, hard candy/gum (must be in original package and doubled bagged in Ziploc).

Note: No war related toys, politically themed items, used items, chocolate or out of date candy, liquids or lotions, medication or vitamins, aerosol, breakable items or glass.

Target sells standard plastic shoeboxes for under $1.  This becomes a gift in itself as the child will have something durable to keep his or her treasures in or use for storage.

If you are unable to join us I will collect items to fill shoeboxes or filled shoeboxes and transport them to a local drop-off location.  Use the link below under "To Learn More About" to make your donation for shipping and to print labels identifying the gender and age group appropriate for the gift.   If you would like to sponsor shoebox(es), it costs $7 to ship an individual box.  If you made your donation online you will receive an email sharing the destination of your sponsored box.  Just download the label and send it in an email attachment to be printed and placed in your sponsored shoebox(es).
 

You can also create a shoebox as a family or have your own packing party!  It is a great deal of fun and wonderful reminder Christmas is about giving and God's greatest gift of all!

PRAY, CONSIDER, RECEIVE, SHARE 

    Please PRAY for children in situations with nothing to call their own, who have little to take their minds off the poverty, disease, famine and/or war surrounding them with the absence of reminders they are loved.  Children like Alex Nsengimana of Rwanda who received his first shoebox in an orphanage after the horrific genocide in 1994.  Recipients of Christmas shoeboxes have the opportunity to participate in the follow-up program, The Greatest Journey, partnered through Operation Christmas Child with their local church.  Alex like hundreds of other children found hope in Jesus Christ through a Christmas shoebox gift and Christ Himself through The Greatest Journey.  As Operation Christmas Child marks its 20^th anniversary stories like Alex’s can be heard world-wide.  Chronicles of how an unadorned shoebox gift touched their lives and as adults the joy they now experience as pastors or missionaries, often in their own villages, when they pass out Christmas shoeboxes to the next generation or teach The Greatest Journey program.  PRAY for the children who will be receiving Christmas shoebox gifts this season.  That each gift ministers to each specific child and brings a lasting sense of hope and God’s love for them.  People need Jesus to guide them to a loving God who is the only One who can protect the essence of self, their soul.  Jesus is the Way, the Truth and Life.  Only He can reconcile our hearts back to God.  Seek the Way.  Learn of Truth.  Choose Life.  May we all not just believe in Jesus, but believe Him.  Please PRAY for those delivering Christmas shoeboxes through the underground churches, regions where believers are being persecuted and areas of war.   

     Please CONSIDER giving, through donations, packing a shoebox or volunteer service, to Operation Christmas Child and/or locally within your own community programs providing Christmas gifts and hope to children of our military, those with incarcerated parents or are homeless.  Guidance Counselors, social workers, etc. often have names of children and teens you can sponsor for the Christmas holiday.  Below are links to websites where you can learn more about Samaritan’s Purse’s Operation Christmas Child.

     RECEIVE the Lord's eternal blessing for your partnership in whichever manner He guides you in. 

     Please SHARE this blog with anyone you know who is interested in supporting and/or partnering in missions work, locally or globally. 


PRAYER REQUESTS

Children surviving in the midst of war

Children displaced in homeless shelters, missions or orphaned

Children whose parents are incarcerated or unable to provide for them

Recipients of Christmas shoebox gifts

The message of Christ’s birth be focal this holiday season

Continue to pray for the ministries of Samaritan's Heart, Vive Talamanca, Pearl Process and the La Carpio church in San Jose, Costa Rica  (see previous blogs August-October)



TO WATCH A STORY OF REDEMPTION THROUGH A SHOEBOX

A Gift for Prakash
Go to:  http://www.samaritanspurse.org/article/a-gift-for-prakash/

The Hands of the Toymaker
Go to:  http://www.samaritanspurse.org/article/the-hands-of-the-toymaker/

A Gift of Forgiveness in Rwanda
Go to:  http://www.samaritanspurse.org/operation-christmas-child/alex-story/


TO LEARN MORE ABOUT

Samaritan's Purse
Go to:  http://www.samaritanspurse.org/

Operation Christmas Child
Go to:  http://www.samaritanspurse.org/what-we-do/operation-christmas-child/

To donate OM Costa Rica or a partner ministry of OM Costa Rica (English) -  

Go to:  https://my.omusa.org/page.aspx?pid=328

             Note:  In the additional information comment box type: “Donation for OM Costa Rica                                                                                               field #14500, specify the missionary, ministry project or sponsor child

  

 

En Route

August 10, 2013: Day Eight

Saturday.  Already?  The week went by so quickly!  Having packed the previous evening, I sought as much time outside enjoying the sun rise over the city.  A new school year will begin in five days not leaving much time for reflection.  As I get situated at “my” stone table and stool it dawns on me I am weighted by as much trepidation preparing to come one week ago.  I’ve experienced much in the last five months.  I pray those lessons help me gain insight and deepen my faith in the Lord and His purpose for my life.

 

We spent our last morning with the Paniagua’s enjoying breakfast at a local eatery.  The morning was a bit chilly, yet pleasant at the outdoor seating once in the sun.  We were blessed with weather akin to Maryland of recent weeks, considering it was the rainy season; but, as a cold front moved in after Tuesday’s storm, temperatures dropped the last few days.   After saying goodbye to Alex, Julie and their girls we were off on a short ride to the airport.  I felt myself memorizing the route, imprinting buildings, statues and surrounding mountains into my mind in an attempt to soak up what final pieces of Costa Rica I could grasp.  The anticipated question “Jesus, are you sending me back to this place?” danced around my head in a dare to be spoken out loud, if even just a whisper.

 

Once the journey home was a reality I settled in to view landscape new to me.  Tracking the flight I realized at one point we were over Cuba.  Suddenly, I wasn’t so comfortable about flying!  I’ve never flown over the Caribbean nor have I been.  Seeing breathtaking hues of the water along island shores moving out into the Sea captivated my attention.  Never would I fully have believed the wonder of turquoise colors in the water had I not seen it for myself.   Shades of green mixed with a mysterious blue at the depths create a surreal appearance. 

 

One flight attendant I found quite amusing as she stumbled in her dispensing of information.  On several occasions I was caught observing her during her blunders.  Giving me a raised brow I smiled back raising my own brow which made her laugh.  Three hours into the flight I got up to use the restroom, something I adamantly try to avoid, and ended up in a lengthy conversation with this particular flight attendant.  Waiting for my turn I asked if she felt different in the air than on land when pregnant.  She was 6 months pregnant with her fourth and possessed a quick wit and Bronx-like façade.  At one point, we both jumped up on the soapbox regarding education and also shared a bit of fun that definitely helped pass time.  After three boys, whom it was apparent she adored, she was hoping God would bless her with a girl.  She explained how she was carrying this child differently and how differently she felt in general, more exhausted and forgetful, which I bit my lip and we both burst out laughing given her current difficulty with in flight speeches.   I had the privilege to briefly pray for her, the baby and her family, promising to keep her in my prayers especially in the upcoming months.

 

The team met a week later and in that time it was decided each person would share a specific portion of the week and photos correlating would be shown to the congregation.  As I prayed about this, it seemed indispensable to share the spiritual aspects in relation to the One guiding, healing, providing and comforting.   Works of service tend to focus on the circumstances, make contrasting comparisons and what those who have did about it.  I felt enticed to give testimony of what Christ did through us.   I wanted to communicate the relational part of ministry and reiterate God’s Word is true and alive and the source of strength for the weak, the weary and oppressed.  That through Christ an unexplainable joy exists where happiness flees in any given moment.  I’ll close with my précis, highlights that I hope reflect the heart of my week, on the Costa Rica mission’s trip:

“Watching the Lord bring Scripture to life impacts me the most when serving Christ and other people; however, never before as literal and vivid as my week in Costa Rica.  Sharing with Roshani, the lead missionary for Talamanca, she too experienced that same sense of elation.  We were able to be used as vessels to God fulfilling His own Word!  What a joy and honor.  The bible states He “will lift us up from the miry clay and place our footing on a sure foundation.”  We tend to think if these images metaphorically.  However, God’s words flow deeper than metaphor.  Before our eyes, God lifted a family from a sinking, slippery muddy foundation and placed them on a solid firm wood foundation. 

             The Bible states God will “make beauty of ashes”, turn our “mourning into joy” and outlines what a Godly woman entails.  We met women who have been destitute, abused, without known traits or skills.  Unknown to them, but Jesus knew.  He used their pain and hardships to strengthen them, transforming the women into Proverbs 31 women full of self-esteem, growing in knowledge of Him as He develops hidden talents and gifts that can be utilized so they can provide for themselves and their loved ones.  

             Jesus spoke of caring for the widows and orphans, meeting the needs of the poor so no one goes without.  He told the woman at the well He could give her drink where she would thirst no more and fed multitudes bread from Heaven.  We worked alongside a street ministry feeding the stomachs and souls of homeless men and women bound by additions to drugs and alcohol.  One evening of being a reflection of the Lord’s Light might have been the only act of kindness those men and woman had all week.  Showing Christ to those lost in their pain and suffering strikes a cord within guarded hearts that can resonate with peace God desires for His creation.

             The Bible shows of people in the early church selling all their possessions to follow Him.  We broke bread and worked alongside a family who left a comfortable middle class lifestyle in Costa Rica and walked away from the potential for a well paid profession in order to move into the slums and serve their people, bringing nothing but the love of Christ with them.  Trusting God to make a way, living solely by faith, because if you believe, the Lord can make a way where there is no way.  I know He can, I am assured He will because I’ve seen it. 

             The Bible speaks of God revealing Himself to the heart of people.  We fellowshipped, lifting up the name of Jesus in worship and praise, song and testimony, in the home of a prominent leader of the Talamanca community who recently came to Christ, along with his wife, and dedicated his home to the Lord. 

             His Word instructs us to pray without ceasing.   Family members testified of answered prayer as their adult children and grandchildren came to Christ while others regained hope to continue and believe in the same prayer for their own.   The Bible documents people delivered from the control of satan at the command of Jesus Christ.  We met young people bound by the hand of satanic forces in a newly saved family praying they be set free from any satanic attack.  Prayers for healing, salvation in Christ, growth in Christ and deliverance abound. 

             God’s word comforts us through countless acts of grace and unexplainable miracles.  Through prayerful hands in the name of Jesus and by faith people were healed, experienced restored energy and found peace in a time of confusion.  Glory to God was lifted when stories of deteriorating eyesight of blurred vision but amazing clarity when reading His Word were shared.  God is moving all around us.  People question the relevance of the Bible today.  The Bible is timeless and alive everywhere we dare to look.” 

PRAY, CONSIDER, RECEIVE, SHARE 

     Please PRAY for people.   No person needs the abundance of religions instituted through the eras.   Religion, a temporary organization made by people, for people, tends to focus on the ability of man and prays for what we want or think we need when the greatest need people have is reconciliation of the heart.  While religion satisfies the human need to have something to believe in, faith,  initiated from the power of God, nourishes the soul.  People need their Creator, the great I AM.  People need God's Son, our guide to a loving God who ultimately is the only One who can protect the essence of self, our soul.  Jesus is the Way, the Truth and Life.  Only Christ can reconcile our hearts back to God.   That is the purpose of why He came to earth and that proclamation is the premises of faith in Him.  Seek the Way.  Learn of Truth.  Choose Life.  Please PRAY for the work being accomplished worldwide through men, women, youth and children.  That God would honor and bless the efforts of missionaries, pastors of local churches, mission ministries and their volunteers.  Pray for those who support God’s work through resources, time, skills and/or finances.  Pray hearts open to hear the Good News of God's plan to reconcile all creation back to Him through His Son Jesus Christ.  Pray for spiritual growth with the people living in remote areas where hearing God's word or fellowship with other believers is difficult or illegal, that they embrace their faith in Jesus, fully trusting in Him.  May we all not just believe in Jesus, but believe Him.

     Please CONSIDER giving, through donations or volunteer service to Christ-honoring ministries and/or locally within your own community.  Below are specific prayer requests to sponsor teens and projects, as well as links to websites where you can learn more about Operation Mobilization as they move to fulfill the Great Commission through service to the poor, neglected and hurting people of Costa Rica as well as other regions worldwide.

     RECEIVE the Lord's eternal blessing for your partnership in whichever manner He guides you in. 

    Please SHARE this blog with anyone you know who is interested in supporting and/or partnering in missions work, locally or globally. 

PRAYER REQUESTS (Regional)
 
Men and women, active duty and reserve, deployed or preparing to be deployed.  Pray for
                 protection and safe return, body, mind and soul. 

                 Catherine and Noel, Christ goes with you, as does my love...
 
Government workers impacted by this politically self-centered shut-down and it's rippling
                 affect. 
 
People who are suffering from illnesses, chronic pain, financial difficulty and/or emotional
                 struggles from day to day.
 
Families who have been recently impacted by flooding, tornadoes and heavy snow storms.
 
Families and friends grieving the lost of loved ones.

 

PRAYER REQUESTS (Costa Rica)

Antonio, 13 years old and unable to attend school.  Requires sponsor $150, one time gift to 

                 provide uniform and materials for school.

Jerry, 14 homeless boy taken in by member of congregation who struggles providing for

                  own family.  Requires sponsor $150, one time gift to provide uniform and

                  materials for school.

Dia del Saber (Day of Flavor), all day Saturday program for the children of La Carpio

                 who receive a nutritious breakfast and lunch, recreation activities where the   
                 children learn to socialize and relate to one another without violence in thematic   

                 workshops.  Requires $500 a month to run the program for 15 children.

 The ministry in La Carpio, funding to complete the facility in order to minister to the
                 the people, providing meals, services, etc.  The construction of the facility also
                 provides employment for those hired to complete specific tasks.

Facility in Talamanca, funding to complete construction and provide employment to
                 workers able to complete specific tasks.

Talamanca Community,  funding to complete Angela's home and provision for homes of
                 people.

                 Funding so the children and youth can attend school with required uniforms and
                 supplies.

                 Funding to complete water filtration system.

Pearl Process, increase of orders to promote the mosaics business in order to continually
                 provide employment for the women of San Jose.

OM Costa Rica Missionaries, Roshani Morton, Gissenia Jimenez Quiros, Alex and Julie  
                 Paniaqua, and Raquel Lopez

 

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT

Operation Mobilization (OM) –

Go to:  omusa.org

OM Costa Rica (Spanish, Chrome translates to English) –

Go to:  http://www.omcostarica.org/spa/

To donate OM Costa Rica or a partner ministry of OM Costa Rica (English) -  

Go to:  https://my.omusa.org/page.aspx?pid=328

             Note:  In the additional information comment box type: “Donation for OM Costa Rica                                                                                               field #14500, specify the missionary, ministry project or sponsor child