Wherever He leads ...

I have a lady in my church that has been offered an opportunity to write her story of her journey with OCC for a money saving website.  It's an amazing opportunity for her and it got me to thinking about my own journey, and that of my church, in this ministry.  It's good, I think, to look back at times and see where God has brought me so that when I am down in a valley I can remember that He never left me and He won't at that time, either!  So here goes ...

In 2001, my friend, Angie, and I were teaching MissionKids on Wednesday nights.  I can't remember now if this was our first year teaching or our second, but we decided it was time to clean out the classroom.  As with any church, there are rooms that seem to become the collection sites of anything that doesn't really have a home and there were 2 huge cabinets in our classroom that had become such places!  Armed with large, heavy duty trash bags and lots of energy, we attacked the room!  It didn't take long to fill our trashbags with junk and our hair with dust, but the job was about done.

We were down to the last shelf or so and we found a brochure.  It was green and red with a photo of a child holding a Christmas present.  The brochure was titled "Operation Christmas Child".  Hmmm, we thought, we need a Christmas project for the kids.  As we read the brochure, God began tugging at our hearts and we knew this would be an easy and fun missions opportunity for the kids - a great lesson in giving back!

Today I cannot remember what we packed, what we wrapped or even how we got the job done, but I know we packed 138 shoeboxes.  Talk about excited!  So, we had such great success the first year, why not do it again!  Year after year we would gear up for Operation Christmas Child in the fall and year after year God blessed our kids, our congregation and, of course, us!

Angie and I were fortunate that first year to be invited to take part in a trip to Boone, North Carolina to the Processing Center where many of the shoeboxes in this part of the United States end up for inspection.  I look back now in wonder at two ladies hopping a bus at 6:00 in the morning only knowing each other and not even knowing each other all that well!  We had no idea what God had in store for us on that trip!

To this day I cannot describe what we saw when we walked through the doors of that Processing Center.  Enormous posters lined the walls and hung from the ceiling - all smiling faces of children hugging their shoeboxes; the "smiling faces" song that was popular for OCC that year playing over and over until you just couldn't hold back emotions any more.  God was definitely in that place.  I can remember Angie and I turning to each other, eyes wide, as it started to sink in a little that we had "stumbled" into something fantastic!

Our first job at the Center was not glamorous.  Of course, we were so excited, we just didn't care!  We had the arduous task of sorting and boxing through the inappropriates - glass, liquids, food and chocolate, war toys, etc. that are removed from the shoeboxes and replaced with more appropriate items.  All items that come out of these shoeboxes are put to use in other places, but they must first be sorted.  Not an easy job or easy on the back.

I can remember the first time we were allowed to walk up to the inspection table and reach behind us and pull out a box from the bin and open it up and inspect it for some of those inappropriates!  Between the awe and wonder of what God was doing right there in front of us and that heart tugging song playing over and over - WE WERE HOOKED!  And ... we've never looked back.

A few years later God led Angie to another church and I lost my OCC partner, but she was with me when God started something amazing in our hearts and I have missed her every year since.  But over time, God brought other people in our church to work alongside me in this ministry and it has grown into something that doesn't even resemble what it was that first year we packed 138 shoeboxes.  This year, 2011, we will pack over 1,500 shoeboxes!!  Actually, that is not the truth ... GOD will pack that many shoeboxes - that many Gospel Opportunties to share His Son with children all around the world.

Creating that many "seeds" to be used by distribution teams in over 100 countries around the world, to 8.2 million children who are the forgotten, the children trying to live in some of the world's darkest places, would be enough, but, again, God had other plans!

In 2008 while delivering our shoeboxes to the Collection Center, the Coordinator at the time turned to me and said, "Have you ever thought of doing more? Have you ever considered being a Relay Center?"  I have to stop and give you a bit of background.  God is so funny!!  While driving to the Collection Center that day, I turned to the lady who was with me and told her how I felt God was leading me to do more with Operation Christmas Child but that I didn't know what.  I told her of the desire He'd placed in my heart to take a step of faith into something that He'd been preparing me for.  So, you can just imagine the look on my face just a few moments later when the comment, "Have you ever considered ...." was uttered!  I love when God answers us so loudly and so immediately.

Of course, I couldn't say "yes" fast enough!  So in 2009 Oak Ridge became a Relay Center for OCC and I it's coordinator.  So very cool, but, you guessed it, that wasn't all.  That spring I was also given the opportunity to become the Church Relations Coordinator for the Northern Kentucky area team of OCC.  There was a lot of paperwork and organizing, both right up my alley!

I enjoyed Church Relations very much through most of 2010, but in the late summer of that year, God began talking to me again.  This time about leading the NKY team! Me? Lead? Surely there is someone a lot more qualified to do such a thing!  But, by January 2011, I was Area Coordinator of Northern Kentucky and I wouldn't have traded this past year for the world! I am the luckiest of girls because I have now 17 other people who love OCC, who love Jesus, who love the children around the world whom they'll never see, as much as I do, and we work tirelessly together to spread OCC through 7 counties in NKY!  I've met and worked with some of the most amazing people and cannot wait to see what God does through this opportunity to serve in the next year!

So, my own ministry has gone through a lot of changes, but so has the ministry at Oak Ridge.  God has brought people in and out, but each person has left their mark.  2012 will bring more changes, but good ones.  We have a lady in our church who has a heart for homemade items that some of our older members, who can't do as much of the shopping and the wrapping and the physical labor that goes into a project of this size, can do so they leave their mark on these shoeboxes.

God has brought another lady along to form a relationship with a local clothing store that has graciously agreed to keep shoeboxes coming our way all year long!  She picks them up, keeps up with the count and makes sure these boxes get wrapped for the fall when we start filling these gifts.

God has brought a small group of ladies that love to shop and find the best deals - even the free items - to make sure that we had not just a quantity of boxes, but a good quality of boxes!

God has taken a group of women in our church that didn't know each other very well and made them into a team - a team that loves reaching children for Jesus and loves serving the Lord all while bonding together as Sisters in Christ.

Last year when I took over leadership of the NKY area team, God brought my "sister", Debbi Mallory, to take over coordinating our Relay Center!  She is an amazing asset to the team and a dear friend to work closely with me!

I don't know where God will take this ministry He began so many years ago at Oak Ridge Baptist Church, and in the hearts of two lowly MissionsKids workers, but I'm ready for what He has.  "Wherever He leads, I'll go. I'll follow my Christ who loves me so. Wherever He leads, I'll go!"

I just want to serve my Savior in the way He calls me.  If I'd been called to be a packer of shoeboxes, a seed-maker, I was honored.  But He wasn't finished with me yet and He wasn't finished with Oak Ridge, either!

As I've said a lot lately, I'm a very, very lucky girl!  Don't you think???