Almost every year for about 15 years, our family has participated in this meaningful outreach. It's the official kick-off to Christmas in my heart, and it usually starts in August. (The only thing I do early for Christmas, honestly.) It starts when the back-to-school sales hit because that's when I start putting pens, paper pads, crayons, pencils, a sharpener, an eraser--into a shoebox, the very shoebox I have when buying that new pair of tenners for my child.
I like to put the empty shoebox in the cart and add things to it as I shop, to make sure they fit inside and that the lid will go on easily. (I have discovered the hard way that sometimes the big packaging on small items prohibits easy packing.)
I am always praying for God to give me an idea for one special item that would be truly meaningful for the exact child this box will go to. Of course, I never know for sure, but I have peace when God whispers, "size 5 shoes for her," that He will see to it that I find size 5 shoes in my budget ($4.83 on clearance is what I found one year!) and that a girl somewhere in the world who is needing size 5 shoes will get this box. It might be that her mother had been praying for new shoes to replace the worn-out ones of her ever-growing daughter. At any rate, I get super-excited thinking about how the Lord "connects the dots" in His sovereign way with Operation Shoebox.
I also like to include a necklace for a girl, a watch or wallet for a boy, and of course, a Christmas card with a personal note.
One year my daughter actually got a note back from a little girl in Ecuador who received Sarah's shoebox! The letter came in the summer--six months after Christmas!--and oh, was it ever one of the most exciting pieces of mail we have ever opened! It doesn't happen often, and it's not the reason we do OS. But it certainly felt good to read how much one shoebox filled with love meant to a little girl on another continent.
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