1180

Ok, I'm too lazy to check and see but I THINK this is number 15 or something like that....I'll look later for my own records :P

Operation Christmas Child :)

One of the most rewarding things I have done in awhile (second only to being a wife mother and youth leader). Last year some friends of ours ran a relay center from our church (and if I'm not mistaken they did it the year before last as well). Those friends changed churches this past spring but I hated to see the relay center go so I stepped up to take it over. Meet Ms. Relay Center Coordinator :)

Here's some background info for those of you unfamiliar with Operation Christmas Child (OCC) :
Billy Graham is really big stuff to Christians...he has a son name Franklin who started a ministry called Samaritan's Purse over 40 years ago. SP provides many services to many countries around the world (long story short) and you can read more about it at http://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/Who_We_Are/About_Us/

So SP started OCC. OCC is basically where people around the developed world pack shoe boxes with simple gifts such as clothes, toys and hygiene items for kids living in poverty all through the world. To date OCC has delivered to over 130 countries and to 73 million something kids!! Pretty awesome right??

Well, the way it works....you take a shoebox (however many you want) and you pack it. Then you take it to your church (if your church is participating, if not we will get to that in a second) then someone from you church takes all of the boxes from different families to a relay center (that's what I run) who takes all of THOSE boxes from area churches and puts them in crates and takes them to a collection center, who takes all of the boxes from area relay centers to a processing center (there are only 4 in the country) where volunteers go through the boxes to make sure everything is ok, gets the boxes ready for shipping and collects the money for shipping that people put in the boxes (7 dollars/box) and from there the shoe boxes are distributed all over the world!

p.s if you don't have a church that participates, you can take your box right to the relay center.

OK...now that all of that is out of the way....I started calling churches back in August. 3 or 4 churches a day, almost every day, to remind them that it was time to get started! It got pretty exhausting honestly, trying to keep up with who I had and had not talked to on top of dealing with my every day stuff. Next year I definitely have to do something differently.

I did that for about 2 months (though I took about a week off at a time) and I am fairly confident I at least left a message at every church within 20 miles of LaFayette lol.

I started planning a regional packing party in October. My idea was for many churches to come together for one really big event. We had a speaker and music lined up and I spent every afternoon for about 2 weeks knocking on doors, handing out fliers and, once again, calling churches. When the day finally came, we only had about 15 people, all but one from my church, but it was still a beautiful experience and we packed 79 shoe boxes that day!!

After that I went to a training where I received everything I would need for the Relay Center. There wasn't much to do at that point except wait.

The collection week ran Monday to Monday so every night that week I had to be at the church to greet people, help them bring boxes in and fill out some paper work. We also had some snacks and drinks available for anyone who wanted anything.

I thought Monday was a busy night with 3 churches coming in, but I had no idea. Tuesday and Wednesday were both slow, not a single box and Wednesday and I was certain we wouldn't reach out goal of 900 (we had almost 800 last year) but then Thursday we got over 400 boxes in one night!! That took us up to a little more than 600 and was convinced we wouldn't reach the 900 mark. I told Brian I would be happy with 800, I just hoped we could reach that.

Friday saw very few and Saturday we only had one, come Sunday morning we had still not reached 800.

We were at the church from 9am to 9pm Sunday. It was a long day to say the least, but we stayed pretty busy and at the end of the day we had over 800! We were not to 900 but I was thrilled we had at least gone farther then we did last year.

I didn't expect much for Monday since we had short hours. we were open 9 to 11 and then we had to take the boxes to the collection center. We had one group show up at 9 but then nothing
until 11. At 11 it was like the flood gates opened! Car after car was pouring in! I couldn't keep up with all of it! In 30 minutes we received almost 300 shoe boxes!! It was really amazing to see all of those people bringing those wonderful gifts in at once.

We were running behind getting the boxes to the processing center but with some help we got them down there and our final count was 1030!

We took the boxes to the CC and the lady told us that we were the only RC in the area to go up, all of the others had less than the year before.

Seeing all of that hard work being loaded into the back of a roadway trailer was bittersweet. On one hand I was glad for all of the work to be done. I was looking forward to not having to spend 98% of my time thinking about shoe boxes, but on the other hand, I had poured so much into getting it done I had formed a...well, a bond with the "job" and I wasn't entirely ready to give it up.

Of course I haven't given it up. I plan to do it again next year, and it is a year-round position in some ways. and I still have to go clean the foyer in the church (about to leave to do that now) but for now my part is finished. All I can do now is pray for all of those boxes and of the children receiving them and know that 1180 (more boxes came in later that I have to take to Atlanta in 2 weeks) lives will be touched, 1180 children will smile on Christmas morning, and I was a very big part of it.

Amazing doesn't begin to describe the way that feels.