2016 Christmas Party: Countdown Craft & A Special Story

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Christmas Party, Y'all!

What an amazing meeting!  Christmas is such a special time of year for so many reasons. The lights, the yummy treats and of course the remembrance of the baby boy, Jesus, who changed the world forever!  Aside from all of those wonderful things, perhaps the most special thing about Christmas is making memories with your family and friends.  

We made a "Days 'til Christmas" chalkboard sign that we hope will be a part of those memories for many Christmases to come!  And no sign was alike - we have some pretty gifted ladies in our group, if I do say so myself!  Check these out!

        

In October and November our group service project was to collect items for Operation Christmas Child, a program through Samaritan's Purse (founded by Franklin Graham).  The items were placed in boxes, then sent to 16 children in third world countries.  For some of them this was possibly the first gift they had ever received.  What a surprise it was to find out that one of our very own Moms had received an OCC box when she was a child!  It was a true blessing to hear of Rosa's experience with Operation Christmas Child and the impact it had on her life.     

In a nutshell: Rosa grew up in Peru where she lived with her parents in a very poor area of the country.  Her parents did not go to church but her grandmother did and Rosa would go with her often.  One Christmas the church was expecting to receive Operation Christmas Child boxes for children attending church there.  However, there were much more children than boxes.  To be fair names were drawn and those children were ushered into a big room and given beautiful boxes to open.  Rosa described how she was beyond excited to be one of the lucky children.  It was bittersweet though, as she was quite aware of the large group of children right outside the church wishing they had been lucky like her.  She described how having that experience as a child then (eight years old), and being on the complete other side of it now, was surreal and amazing!  To see what all goes into sending these boxes and the generosity of people was touching to her.  

She said, "You may think you are doing a little thing, but it's not."  

It was a little thing to give a small toy or a toothbrush.  Just a little thing to us, but to a child in another country, one not as blessed as ours, it can absolutely be life changing!  Not just the object itself, but the power that comes from an act of kindness from a stranger.  THIS is the gospel.  THIS is the real meaning of Christmas.  We hope you were blessed by Rosa's story as much as we were.  

Thank you, Rosa, for having the courage to share with us and for allowing God to use your story!