Mid-Week Recap

Things have been so nuts lately, that I haven't had much opportunity to sit down and collect my thoughts and write.  Not because there has been nothing to say, but because there always is!


I have been very fortunate in the last week or two to go around Northern Kentucky to different churches and be a part of packing parties and events.  It is always neat to see how each church promotes this ministry and puts their shoeboxes together.  I usually steal at least one idea from each one and take it back to my own church!  Trust me, nobody minds, because they steal from me as well!

I have a lady, Doris, who is part of the congregation at Latonia Baptist Church.  She is also on my full-time ministry team serving through Church Relations.  She is an incredible woman and opens her house every year to Operation Christmas Child.  Now, Latonia Baptist is no small church, but instead of storing, sorting, wrapping and packing supplies for their shoeboxes in their church, they do all this work out of her house.  Last year I was able to get a look at her setup, which was incredible, but this year I was asked to actually help pack some of her boxes! What an opportunity.  For two weeks out of the year, every surface in her house, except her bed, is covered in supplies for the shoeboxes.  Her stove and kitchen is covered in stuffed animals. Two of her bedrooms are divided into boy and girl and covered in toys, soap and toothpaste, stickers, underwear and socks and all kind of other things. Her living room in set up for 2-4 year old boxes and finished boxes. Her dining room is where I stopped for candy and putting my label on my boxes!  


Here are a few photos to show what I mean:

The boy bedroom.

Doris (on the left) in the girl bedroom.

Completed box central!

Ms. Doris and her church packed 605 shoeboxes out of her home this year!  Way to go, Doris.  It is always such a privilege to serve Jesus and the children of the world with this dear lady. I have grown very fond of her and cannot wait to see how God uses her in 2012!!

My next stop last week was to Beaverlick Baptist Church where Kenny and Sue Richerson are Relay Coordinators.  They are, like Doris, full-time volunteers for OCC and a lot of fun, too!  In the past their church has taken home shoeboxes and brought them back filled or they've had a small group come in and fill a few boxes.  This year Sue opened the packing party up to the church and wasn't really expecting very many people.  Take a look at what God did:

It is hard to tell from my photo, but there were 27 people packing shoeboxes!

This beautiful lady stood at that spot for 2 hours bagging school supplies.

Kenny and Sue and a very happy AC!

Beaverlick packed 126 shoeboxes in this one night!  I heard a lot of comments about how much fun people were having and that they'd like to do this again next year!  Hey, serving God IS fun!!!

My last two packing parties were at my own church on Saturday.  Scott High School has a National Honor Society type club that wanted to do something for OCC.  They came to the church and I put them right to work wrapping up supplies and filling candy bags!  They were cracking me up asking when they would get to pack some shoeboxes, but I told them they had to work first! It was great getting to share about this amazing ministry with a whole new generation of volunteers.  Here they are:

 

And last, but not least in any way, was the final packing party and wrap up of the shoeboxes in my own church!  I am very blessed to attend a church with fantastic, Christ following ministers who fully support Operation Christmas Child!  We work on shoeboxes all year long and God has blessed us abundantly!  This year we were able to put together 1415 Gospel Opportunties so far and it's not because of anything I did or we did, but what GOD did!  

God has been working in an amazing way here in Northern Kentucky.  In the hearts of the full-time volunteer team that keeps the ministry operating and growing in these 7 counties; in the hearts of Project Leaders in the area churches who felt the call to participate again this year and even increase their numbers; in the volunteer spirit of the communities and businesses, schools and even hair salons across our area to take part in something that is completed a world away.  

I've believed for some time that God is preparing us for a new Great Awakening, a world wide revival of His people, and that He is going to do this through the children of the world!  These young hearts that He is already speaking to that will be receiving one of the shoeboxes we are preparing and collecting this week here in Northern Kentucky.  I believe God will raise up passionate preachers out of these shoebox recipients; that churches will be planted and souls won for Christ; that families will be restored through the mercy and grace of our Savior; that God's Kingdom will grow and that the harvest will be great!

I told someone not too long ago that I cannot wait to be face to face with my Savior and be surrounded in the fruit that comes from these seeds that we've created and sent!  

Keep packing my friends!  National Collection Week continues to be amazing and goals are being met and surpassed all around us.  We are praying for 15,000 shoeboxes out of our area, not because of the number, not because of any efforts on our part, but because and only because of what God is doing in His people in Northern Kentucky!

See, told you, I am the luckiest girl on the planet!!