Grateful Praise

Thank you, Lord, for your provision during National Collection Week! Thank you for good friends, safety of those bringing shoeboxes, generous hearts that packed boxes and for the record breaking response here in Northern Kentucky this year!  I ask, God, that you are already preparing the 14,886 hearts that will hear about Your hope, Your peace, Your freedom, Your love because the people of Northern Kentucky sacrificed for 14,886 children they'll never meet this side of heaven.  I ask that these 14,886 "seeds" fall on fertile soil and that your harvest is ABUNDANT!

I come to you today with grateful praise for the power you have shown in the last few weeks.  I am grateful to you, Lord, for binding satan along the way and for reminding me that YOU are in control and already know what is coming!

"Let everything that has breath, praise the Lord. Praise the Lord."                 Ps. 150:6

"The Lord is my strength and my song; He has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise Him, my father's God, and I will exalt Him."           Ex. 15:5

As the trailers pull away from our Collection Center in Alexandria this morning, and as another OCC year comes to an end, I am very reflective.  Yesterday, my dear friend and "sister", Debbi, reminded me that God has blessed this area and my team in so many, many ways.  That we have been praying all along that God would have us send the shoeboxes He purposed for us and that He needed from us.

So, in the spirit of Gratefully Praising God this morning, here's how He has worked in us this year:

• 14,886 Gospel Opportunities - a 7.8% increase over 2010 (13,810) and 1,076 more shoeboxes and also a new all-time high record for NKY!
• I still have two groups of Collection Center paperwork to enter into the database, but already we added 5 new community groups and 18 new churches participating in OCC for 2011!!!  That already blows our goal away!
• We added 5 new team members with the potential of 2 more already in talks
• We added a Media Coordinator, a Prayer Coordinator and will most likely add a Community Relations Coordinator after the first of the year!
• We added a new County for our area - Gallatin County, and
• A new Relay Center for that new County - Warsaw Baptist Church, and
• An energetic and full out fun lady to Coordinate that Center - LoraMae Sullivan (you'll see more of her in 2012, I predict!)
• We saw a few churches across our area break unbelieveable shoebox records:
• Walton First Baptist - 160 in 2010 to 511 in 2011!
• Latonia Baptist Church (Go, Doris!) - 500 in 2010 to 605 in 2011 - out of her house!
• Oak Ridge Baptist Church - 1,074 in 2010 to 1,533 in 2011!
• Calvary Baptist Church - 12 in 2010 to 145 in 2011!
• Team unity and organization.  In 2011 this group of people working at multiple purposes and separate and apart really came together in their love of this ministry and grew as a family that loves each other and is excited to see one another when we get together!
• We were fortunate to increase the speaking opportunities in our area:
• Churches
• TV appearance for Doris and myself!
• Latonia Small Business Association
• We were able to have booths at several community events:
• The anniversary celebration of Potter's Ranch
• The Pumpkin Festival in Warsaw, Kentucky
• The Fair in Gallatin County (where we picked up our RC!)
• We had record attendance at our Countdown Event in September!  We increased attendance over 2010 from 114 to around 140 for this year!
• We sent out 309 letters during Affirmation Campaign saying "thank you" to churches, community groups and individuals who participated in OCC for 2010!
• We had 8 of our team members attend our annual Connect Conference - training in all things OCC!
• We had our first annual Prayer Walk (Drive) to every Relay Center and our Collection Center.  We prayed for NCW as well as the other ministries and staff at each location.

I dare someone to say we didn't meet our goals!  We not only met them, God blew them away!

Satan - 0

God- 14,886 and counting!!!!

Yes, we had a lot of adversity this year in our personal lives ... family members passing away, illness, some turmoil in our Regional Office, tough work environments and circumstances, etc., but God blessed over and over and over again even in the midst of those distractions!  

God wins! He is faithful.  We serve a mighty and powerful Savior! 

He deserves praise for all the things that were accomplished in Northern Kentucky for 2011.  For HE is the reason we serve; reaching children across the world for Jesus is our purpose and our goal!  

I can't wait to stand before my Lord and be surrounded in 14,886 faces that are there with me because Northern Kentucky heeded God's call to "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." (Mt. 28)

Rest up, everyone! 2012 is just around the corner and this tired mind is already awhirl with ideas!!!

Love to you all and THANK YOU for all the sacrifices, the time, the talents, the shopping, the wrapping, the packing, the working in collection to make the 14,886 Gospel Opportunities possible!

"Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."  I Thessalonians 5:18

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???

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!!

Beautiful Feet

Wow, this has been an incredible week ... following an incredible year!
Day one of National Collection Week was outstanding here in Northern Kentucky! God has been very busy multiplying all over the place. 
If you have been putting off packing your shoeboxes, now is the time! We will be collecting them through next Monday.
I will have more to post later, but for now I leave you with my very favorite Scripture:
Romans 10:14-15
How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent?  As it is written:  "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"
Don't you love that? From one beautiful pair of feet to another, keep the boxes coming!

The Watched Pot ...

Most of the things I write about are Operation Christmas Child related - it's what I do and who I am - but on this rather dreary Friday morning, I have the funniest story. Let me begin by saying that if you can't laugh at yourself, who can you laugh at???

After I took Lauren to school this morning I was trying to decide what I would do with my day. It's cold and overcast so going out didn't sound appealing. Cleaning house is one of my least favorite activities, so I easily talked myself out of that! I decided it was the perfect day to watch movies and wrap shoeboxes in the living room floor. (Oh, ye of little faith. You thought I wouldn't sneak OCC in here somewhere!) But first, I needed some breakfast. Now, those of you who know me, know I am not a breakfast person. I have been told six million times by my Yoda Dana to eat breakfast every day and I'd feel better and have more energy. But, alas, my head is extraordinarily thick! This morning, however, I was actually hungry! A hard boiled egg sounded perfect.

I went to the refrigerator and, sure enough, we have eggs - 8, in fact. Lauren, my daughter, loves hard boiled eggs, so why not just cook all 8! I prepared the pan with salt and the eggs and filled it with water, turned on the burner and got the cooking process started.

Here is where I goofed. I got distracted. I started reading email, sending email, responding to questions about OCC, getting some paperwork completed for my Regional Office, etc. I was just in the living room, but, as these stories always go, I needed something upstairs on the desktop computer. I am extremely ADD on a normal day, but lately with so much going on, I'm exceptionally so!

Yeah, you can see where this is headed ...

I had been upstairs for at least 20 minutes when I heard a loud sound downstairs! Emma, my golden retriever, heard it too, of course, and was up like a shot ready to defend her territory and it's mistress, if necessary. I figured it must've been the cat doing something he's not supposed to, when I heard the sound again - louder this time! I also realized that the cat is still outside and Emma and I are alone in the house ...

So downstairs we run and it's then that I smell a weird, pungent, nasty burning smell. Then it hits me ... I was boiling eggs for my breakfast! So I run into the kitchen fully expecting fire when I see boiled egg carcass all over the kitchen! And when I saw all over the kitchen, I mean all over the kitchen! I even found egg parts across the room by the coffee pot!

What was I to do? I started laughing at the ridiculousness of what I had done and realized I am truly in need of some time management (and perhaps it's time for a discussion with my doctor about my ADD)!

Yep. I now am well versed on how to make egg bombs, should you ever need that information in the future. I will say, though, that the eggs are some very hard boiled, but quite tasty with a nice smoke flavor - at least the ones that "lived" are.

So, the moral of this story? The watched pot may never boil, but the forgotten pot will certainly explode!!

He Has Made Me Glad

As I write this, I am spending some time on my hammock trying to relax - watching the clouds, listening to the wind in the trees blowing the dying yellow and orange leaves ... that's right, be jealous!  But as I try for the elusive relaxation, I am also contemplating this past week.  It's been a tough one for me, especially the last few days.

Friday night I was fortunate to be at the Walton First Baptist Church packing party for OCC - their first ever!  I have had a lot of fun getting to know their new Project Leader, Debbie, and have enjoyed watching and feeding on her passion for this ministry.  WFB has packed about 150 or so shoeboxes for the last several years.   Debbie wanted to do more - a God-sized goal.  So she set their church goal at 500!  After what I saw and felt in that church basement on Friday night, 500+ will definitely be coming out of that congregation and we will have many years of partnership ahead!  It was such a pleasure to share more about OCC with these lovely people and to help them visualize what their efforts mean to God's Kingdom.  Thank you, ladies! I had a blast and my excitement renewed.

Now, here is where I allowed myself to climb into that nasty mud-filled pit!  I don't think I go into a time of depression on purpose.  I truly think at the time that I'm walking along just fine and then WHAM!  But that is not realistic, is it?  Satan doesn't want me happy; he doesn't want me serving the Lord, but complacent, ineffective, wallowing and focusing on myself.  Well, then he has been very pleased with me the last few days!!

A few years ago we had a particularly great retreat and one of my team members turned to me and said, "Okay, start watching for that ole' devil to attack!"  She was right. It wasn't even 24 hours before he did.  I forgot that this time and shifted my focus on self for just long enough that my joy over what God did Friday was cut short.

It's so easy for us to dwell on the rough things going on in our lives:  bills to pay, loved ones that are sick, difficulties at work, crazy schedules ... we can make it very easy for satan to worm his way in and whisper, "Hey, yeah, those 500 shoeboxes were great, but ... "  I listened to the BUT ... so today is a new day -

Satan wants me weary, distracted, ungrateful, unfocused, sad, lazy and burning the candle at both ends. That's how I was yesterday, but not today!  Today God has given me victory over those negative things.  Today I am on my way to resting in His promises to never leave me. Today I am focused on Kingdom building.  Today I am grateful for where I am (especially this sunny deck and hammock!).  Today I am organized and productive.  Reminds me of that children's song ...

"I will enter His gates with thanksgiving in my heart.

I will enter His Courts with praise.

I will say this is the day that the Lord has made.

I will rejoice for He has made me glad."

So hang in there with me! Rejoice in the day He has made ... no matter what that day may look like!

Finally, Proof of the Rocks in my Head

I love God's sense of humor!  There are times when I look at all that is going on and wonder how in the world so much can happen to one person!  This past week has been one of those times ... Let's go back to Monday ...


So many of you know that I've been battling vertigo for a few months.  It comes and goes with no warning and I've even taken some medicine for it.  Have you ever been car sick?  It's similar in feeling except I sit still in my living room but that living room is not sitting still!  So I finally had enough and made an appointment to see my doctor.  


I am very fortunate to have a general doctor who takes the time to listen when I'm uncomfortable; laugh when I fail miserably to explain what I'm talking about; and just takes it in stride when my explanations require gesturing wildly with my hands.  Anyway, so he has me sit on the table, turn my head to the left and allow my body to fall back.  It felt like I'd taken a turn on the tilt-a-whirl ...


So my doctor stands back, walks to sit on  his stool and says, "You've got loose ear rocks."  I have what?  Yep, you heard it right. I have loose ear rocks.  Only me ... apparently we all have a sack of crystals in our ears that talk to the brain about all things balance.  Once in a while some of these "rocks" get loose and float around in the inner ear confusing the brain, thus making you dizzy!


There you have it - scientific evidence of what we've known all along - rocks in my head!!!  It did make me think later that God is not only very funny, but very creative.  How in the world anyone can look at the human body and believe this all happened by accident is amazing to me.  God has made me wonderfully, loose ear rocks and all.  


So, that was my Monday ... I'm headed to physical therapy for the ear rocks, which I am certain will not be embarrassing in the slightest.  Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday roll in and out without too much difficulty; just all things wrapping and packing shoeboxes! 


Friday is the perfect day to go work with my little sister on shoeboxes.  While on my way to meet Deneese at the church, a car pulled out in front of me and I slammed into it! No one was hurt, but my car took a pretty decent lick.  By that evening, Chad's car had a check engine light on and it stalled on him!  It was just one of those weeks.  As I writ this, I still have rocks in my head and 2 cars in the shop!


HOWEVER, in the midst of one thing after another, God taught me some things, too.  This week our church packed 270 shoeboxes - this many boxes packed with only 7 people!  I also saw something recently that changed my perspective for this year's boxes and was a great reminder of what it is that we are doing.  Get this:  1 box = 1 child = 1 soul.  What an amazingly simple Word from the Lord about what Operation Christmas Child is all about!  It's about bringing children to Him. Not just the children who receive this little gift, but the other children and adults that are a part of the lives of the children!  So instead of making sure each box is stuffed to the gills, I'm about numbers this year.  Just think:

500 boxes = 500 children = 500 souls 

1,000 boxes = 1,000 children = 1,000 souls

15,000 boxes = 15,000 children = 15,000 souls

So yes there are really nutty things that happen in my life; sometimes it feels like all at once, but I'm working to not forget what this time of year is all about! Here in Northern Kentucky our goal is 15,000 shoeboxes.  They're not just boxes to me anymore; they are souls to each for Jesus.  Souls of children who have no hope, no peace, know no love ... but that is what we are giving them in our gifts!  

(Oh, and if you see a black Hyundai out there with his side doors crushed in thinking twice before cutting in front of you, you're welcome!!!)