Christmas Box Giving 2013- Part 1

This is the 7th year we have been blessed to give Christmas boxes to the children here.

Every year, we are not sure what to expect.  We've had anywhere from 50 to over 200 boxes arrive any given year.  

Many of the boxes come from those of you who keep up with our family and ministry via this blog.

And those of you who do keep up with us here know that our updates have been few and far between this past year. :-)  Sorry!  I'll try to do better next year.

That being said, I wasn't sure how many still read here and therefore thought we may not get that many boxes.

Do you know how many boxes we personally put into the hands of a child this past week?

Anyone want to guess?  

Nope.  Good try.  Keep guessing.  Try again.

Okay, I'll just tell you.

384

Give or take a couple....While I tried to do the counting/organization by myself in my bedroom without any interruptions, well, that lasted about 3.5 seconds.

I had several eager helpers.  I say helpers because they sincerely wanted to help.  But in their eager attempts a certain 4 and 5 year old kept moving boxes from my girl pile to my boy pile and then from my "counted pile" to my "yet to count" pile.  

I can't begin to tell you how surprised and excited and touched I was as I looked at each box.  Other than 2 boxes that I couldn't find a return address for, I read each and every name.  I read and made a list of each and every place from which these boxes came.  I imagined the time and effort put into choosing the items, paying for them,  packing them up, taking them to be shipped, and then paying again to send them.

And I thought of the boys and girls that would receive each box.  

I thought of their smiles and joy as they opened their gift.  

I thought of being able to tell them where the gifts came from and how much Jesus loves them.

As I looked at the massive pile of boxes that sat in my room and thought of the great amount of time, sacrifice, and thoughtfulness that went into getting them here, I thought of the gift God gave and the gifts He continues to give to us each day.  

We don't deserve them, we haven't earned them, and we don't even fully appreciate them. Yet God is so good and loves us so much that He gave.

  You gave to these children not because they deserve a gift or have done something to earn one.  And while they love the gifts, they don't fully understand what all went into them receiving them.  You are showing them a small picture of the love of God.   Thank you for helping us do this.

We picked up each box, gave each one to a child, and will continue to share the gospel with these children.

It is more blessed to give than receive.   May the Lord bless you!

Now, as promised, I have a BUNCH of pictures to share with you!  

Do you know how long it takes to give away 384 boxes and try to get a picture of each child receiving them?   I don't know either.  But it was sooooooo fun :)

Okay, so now for all of you who are scrolling through to the bottom of this looking for the pictures, I'm going to tell you my first plan.

My first plan was to write 3 or 4 posts describing each of the places we went to pass out boxes along with their corresponding pictures (in order not to post 300 + pictures on one single post.

I was going to start the first picture post tonight.

My second and current plan is to do just that only I will not be starting tonight simply because my husband, who along with our 4 oldest, has been at a church in Los Cabos for the past 3 days for a youth conference, just called and said, "Honey, can you make dinner for the kids and I and about 15 other people?  They will be there in about 30 minutes."

So I'll publish this for now with a few pictures of the boxes BEFORE we passed them out.

Kind of like when I tell a story to my children and get right to a really good part and say, "We'll find out what happens tomorrow." :)

I'll be back soon with LOTS of  pictures!! 

Thank you for giving.

Here are all the boxes stacked up at my brother in law's house in San Diego, CA waiting for us to come get them

LOVE the little hand writing on the return address!!!!

This is what my bedroom looked like once the boys unloaded the van.
There is a bed under there somewhere

There's the bed!
 Here are all 384 boxes stacked and ready to go!Come back soon to see some VERY sweet faces and hear some special stories.