Operation Christmas Child

 Operation Christmas Child is one of my favorite ministries, and it has been for many years. I think the first time I remember seeing a church involved with OCC was when I was in college. Shortly after we moved to NE, I took this idea to a ministry at church. Since then, we have been participating for many years. This past year a friend and lady from church asked me to pray about becoming the Collection Center Coordinator. I had felt like God had called me to this several years ago, but I knew the timing wasn't right. After Kim asked me to pray about it, I felt the Spirit telling me it was time. 

My role isn't hard. Basically I oversee nine other relay centers that collect shoe boxes the week in November. I will also oversee the relay center in Kearney. At the end of the week all the relay centers bring their boxes to me, and we load them up on the semi. Then I do the final paperwork.

This was my first year to shadow Kim for the entire process. I loved it! I loved meeting people from all over who have a heart for this ministry. I love how churches make this their main mission work and pour their time and resources into it. I love seeing college kids donate their time to load all the heavy boxes onto the trailer. I love seeing families - with kids, work together and pack shoe boxes. I love how it takes our eyes off ourselves and onto someone else who doesn't have much. This ministry is more than a shoe box. It's a life that receives the gospel message.

All this to say the week before Thanksgiving, I spent a lot of time at the church collecting and loading shoe boxes. The girls helped as much as they could. They enjoyed loading the boxes with shoe boxes. It was something they could do. Analise even labeled the boxes for me, and I trusted her to do so. I desire for this to become a part of who they are - who we are as a family. Brandon helped by using his muscles moving boxes and also helping the girls.

Just thinking back on it makes me want to do it all  over again. 

We had a record year for our area. In 2011 we collected 8,000 shoe boxes. Our goal for this year was 8,500. Ready for this? We collected 9,400+ shoe boxes! Praise the Lord!