Operation Christmas Child Display

This is a long read, and most of you will not bother, but I wanted to share why I am so involved with OCC. Some of you may already know that I and another lady at Emmanual Babtist Church in Minden, are “Operation Christmas Child” project leaders. No one asked us to take this on. God laid this on our hearts. Every year we try to think of new ideas to get our congregation involved to help with Samaritan Purse Ministry’s . I want to share a small testimony of mine.
For years, when it came time to pack a box, donate a few items, and help... We’ll, let me say, I was the person who didn’t want to do it. I just saw no reason to help children I didn’t know or that were living in other country’s. I dug my heels in and past it on to someone else. Then, five years ago, my daughter asked me one Sunday in church if I wanted a donation envelope to pack a Christmas box for a boy or girl. I hesitated, but took one home anyway to satisfy her and bought a handful of items for a child. Not my child, not my granddaughter. I felt pretty good about that one little box, getting it to the church on time, and doing my part to help... But,
God told me it wasn’t from my heart! I did it for all the wrong reasons! I hadn’t prayed about it, or prayed for the child that was to receive that small gift.
Then three years ago, “First Baptist Church “ ,had some open spots on their luxury bus, to go to Dallas for two days and to PrestonWood Church, where we would see “The Gift of Christmas Live”. There was one catch and their main reason for the trip thou. To work a shift in the Dallas Distribution Center and help get the thousands of thousands of OCC boxes ready to be shipped by plane and boat. So , I paid for the trip and arranged to go. Little did I know what God was about to show me that weekend.
For hours, my part was at the front of the line where you went through every box and took out any thing was NOT to be in that child’s box and replace with another item that was donated for that reason . No food, no cash, no war toys, no chocolate, no liquid, no weapons. Easy enough! I could do that. Then about thirty minutes into working, I reached in a box and there was a Bible! I know what y’all are thinking ... So? But it was as if I’d been shot, and I couldn’t think of anything except that for all
those years I wasn’t helping, I heard our leaders in church and those around me, that if you packed a box, don’t enclose anything with Scripture, that some places were into Voodoo or were not Christians. I had that tucked back in my pea brain all those years and now my hand was wrapped tight around a Bible and I couldn’t take it out of that box. I stepped back out of line and wept like a baby and I couldn’t stop. When a supervisor and a helper came over to find out what was wrong, I told them what we had been told for years, not only in our church, but our parish . The lady told me something that made so much since as she explained. She said , God put that Bible in that child’s box. He knew what child that box of things would go to before it was ever bought. He knew who would pack it, pray over it, and what would go in that box , including that Bible or scripture . Even if it was received by a country that didn’t know English , he knew what word , his word, that would stand out as that child looked at that scripture or the exact spot that Bible would open to. That one word from God, that could save them from a life of sin and turn to him. Who was I to stop that?
I returned to my spot in line and I can’t explain the feeling in my heart, the joy of what I saw the rest of the day..... Bible after Bible. Small ones, child ones, paper back ones, and beautiful leather ones. I couldn’t wait to share with my church when I got home. I was so filled with the spirt and what all he taught me on that trip. But I didn’t ever get a chance to share. The devil has his way of stomping on your joy and doesn’t want you to minister in any form, not even through the power of one simple gift for an unknown child. It didn’t matter where that gift went, what foreign Country or US State, what disaster, what color of skin. It isn’t ours to choose , it’s God’s . But like I said, the devil has his way of stomping on the good. That trip to Dallas was three years ago and I’m trying everything I know to get our little church involved but it’s hard ! Real hard !
This year I had a chance to say just a few words at the Women’s Prayer breakfast and share my idea of having a packing party this year. So every month, I post items to collect for that month and leave drop off boxes in different areas around the church. On that list each month I included a Bible. I cant say this has been successful but we have collected a few items each month. I made over two hundred envelopes for the pews with the OCC logo on it and labeled for operation Christmas child shipping donation.
That hasn’t been successful either, sadly, and it has been really stressing me out! But once again, God has been talking to my heart. Plan the packing party, make all the arrangements, and stop worrying. He’s got this! Pray, ask, it will happen. This isn’t a chore , it’s as simple as that small gift. He already knows how many boxes, who will it go to , and how it will get shipped.
I chose Acts 20:35 to add on my display....
In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
So , now you know , if you read my long post, why I love doing this ! I have been working on this Display for the Church . I plan on setting it up for the packing party in September and using it in the front of the church the month of October until our deadline. I found the idea on Pinterest but could not find any directions . So here they are. Feel free to use.