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Missionary in a Box

The blog that follows is not about my favorite proverb, but about my favorite ministry instead.

I cry every year when I watch the video promoting Operation Christmas Child through Samaritan’s Purse.  I know what’s coming – I have seen these videos every year for at least the last 8 years - yet I find my eyes welling up each time I see the joy on the faces of children around the world as they receive a shoebox full of gifts.

My heart is soft when it comes to children – that’s probably why God sent me into the teaching profession initially.  I love to help them succeed, to see the “click” in their minds when a concept makes sense to them, to help them find what they are passionate about, to learn what lights up their worlds.  How much more when it is the love of Christ that is lighting up their worlds and igniting a passion within them!

Our family has participated in Operation Christmas Child for many years, and it has blessed us as we seek to be a blessing to children around the world. We decided several years ago that everyone should get to pack their own shoebox, thereby committing our family to filling four boxes.  Now I don’t know about your family, but November is a difficult month to have extra expenditures for our family.  So we have adopted a “shop all year” mentality when it comes to our shoeboxes.  We shop the dollar bins at Target, especially when they are changing the stock and there are 50% off sections.  We shop the day after holidays and go through the clearance section, especially after Christmas and Easter.  There are all sorts of cute stocking or basket stuffer type items that are marked down 50-70%.  We shop for school supplies for our boxes at back-to-school time when the stores have great sales on markers, crayons, scissors, glue sticks, etc.  Also, the end of January is great for finding hats, gloves, and cozy socks on clearance.  We have a designated bin for our “shoebox stuff” where we collect our finds, and then around the first week of November, we pull everything out as a family and start to stuff our shoeboxes.

Another of the joys of this ministry is that it doesn’t end when we drop off our shoeboxes.  We then have the privilege of praying for our boxes:  for the volunteers who will get them ready to ship overseas, for the children who will receive our specific boxes, and for the volunteers who will travel to deliver these boxes. In the past we have used the bookmarks provided by Samaritan’s Purse to help us focus our prayers on different aspects of this ministry every day.

We have also paid our $7.00 shipping fees on the Samaritan’s Purse website, which allows us to print out special tags for our boxes that have tracking numbers. We receive  an email in a couple of months that tells us which country or countries our boxes were sent to, which is a great way to stay “connected” to the boxes and helps us continue to pray for the children who received them.

I am grateful that this ministry is more than just giving out presents and the Christmas story to children in need.  While that is a wonderful thing, I love that Samaritan’s Purse also teaches discipleship classes to these same children so they can truly have their lives changed by the gospel. That is a far greater gift than anything we could pack into a shoebox.

There are so many children living in unspeakable poverty around the world, surviving hardship and loss that break my heart.  I can’t afford to provide them a safe place to live, give them the nutritious food they need, and clothe them sufficiently.  But I can invest in their eternal futures by packing a shoebox that will introduce them to Jesus and His love.

Thanks for letting me share my passion for this ministry that touches my heart.

Merry Christmas!

Candy Rowley

Candy Rowley

Administrative Assistant
Candy and her family started coming to Grace in the fall of 2013, and she joined our staff in April...

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