Anna and Mary along with Abby, Betsy, and Tina, hosted their annual Operation Christmas Child Shoebox fundraiser breakfast a week ago Saturday. It’s complex to figure out schedules and when all the family might be available, but Anna did.
The anticipated morning dawned, beautiful and crisp, the first day of autumn. Inside, the kitchen bustled with activity, and if you hadn’t known better, you might have thought it really was Christmas morning.
The carefully-planned menu consisted of homemade cinnamon rolls (Mary got up early to make them!), breakfast casserole, bananas, orange juice, and coffee.
After breakfast, Abby read a story about a girl who was directly impacted from the simple yet powerful gift of an OCC shoebox. Mary went through a sample box they compiled to show everyone what goes into one of our boxes. She also told about The Greatest Journey and how these sweet children hear about Jesus through a shoebox. Bethany shared a testimony as well. Questions from the family filtered in too and were answered. Then, the time for the fundraiser came, and Tina walked around with a box.
The Lord provided again for this year’s boxes! We are so grateful for the generosity of the family.
I love to see Anna and Mary’s hearts for the shoebox project, and they put a lot of time and effort into buying items on sale throughout the year. This makes it feasible to compile a large number.
Maybe you’ve been thinking of doing shoeboxes. I encourage you not to procrastinate! National Collection week is only about 6 weeks away! For more information about the shoeboxes, see this link.
Happy 1st day of October!
Love,
Sarah
PS: To see previous posts on OCC, and to gain some ideas on what to pack, see these:
Operation Christmas Child Shoeboxes, More than a Gift
Operation Christmas Child: A Chance to Share Jesus’ Love
Preparations the day before. Mary gets out Christmas decorations just for this purpose!
Abby practicing
This girl makes amazing cinnamon rolls.
The OCC fundraiser breakfast committee
Mom and Calia
A demonstration of the “glasses”
in one of the boxes!
Bethany sharing
Tina made the rounds with her box for donations.
“But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother
have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion
from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?
My little children, let us not love in word, neither
in tongue; but in deed and in truth.”
1 John 3:17-18