Operation Christmas Child

As I've mentioned in previous posts, we try each month to have some type of outing as a family. For the month of November, I wasn't sure at first exactly how that would work with having a small baby in addition to two other young children, but I began brainstorming low key activities that might work for us, hoping we could keep up this monthly bonding habit.

Finally, I got it!

Every year, our church participates in Operation Christmas Child, a ministry organized by Samaritan's Purse, to help spread the gospel by providing needy children around the world with shoe boxes packed full of goodies. We took part in this program at our church in Maryland and have continued to be involved with it each year that we've been in Virginia. As a family activity, I thought this would be a great opportunity not only to get out and do something together, but also to teach our children about giving to others. 

We began preparing Caleb for the trip by explaining that we'd be going to the store to purchase toys for children who needed them. He caught on quickly and throughout the day kept talking about buying toys for kids who didn't have any toys, eager to get to work accomplish this task. While Hadley and Reid are too little to really understand what all this was about, it was wonderful to see how much enthusiasm Caleb had about gathering toys for needy children. 

Since the items purchased have to be small in order to fit into a shoe box, the Dollar Tree is always a great place to look. Once we arrived, Caleb could hardly wait to get to the toy aisle to start. 

The first items Caleb found were a variety of balls. One after another they went into the cart until Mommy had to say, "That's enough!" Disregarding my attempt to set a limit, I think quite a few more went into our buggy as we lingered in the toy aisle. Rather than dull their enthusiasm, I just let the kids do their thing and came behind them to empty a few of the excess items I thought we could do without.

At first, Hadley was contained in the double stroller with Reid so we could keep everyone together, but eventually I talked her Daddy into letting her get down and help put things in the cart too. She was a little bit of a mess and kept running away, but she had to get in on the action, right?

Yay! Hadley got to put something in the cart!

Here comes a girl with a jump rope mission.

Reid did his part by sleeping so we could focus on keeping up with the other two and make sure we gathered everything we needed.

Every kid needs crayons!

What good helpers!

This family undertaking actually ended up being a two day activity. The second part of getting these toys to the children they were intended for was packing the shoe boxes. In the past, we usually just wrapped and packed our boxes at home, but this year we decided it might be more fun for the kids if we went to the church and took part in the packing party they were holding.

The kids who receive these boxes often don't have basic toiletry items, so we made sure to purchase those items and load them into the boxes first. Even if some of the toys don't fit, we make sure the toothpaste, toothbrushes, and soap do. Caleb is putting soap in the baggies while Ms. Kelli holds them open. 

Toys are important too. Here Caleb is adding a jump rope to the box his Sunday school teacher, Ms. Jennifer, is holding.

Lots of helping hands made everything go quickly.

Here's Hadley adding a box of crayons to the mix. (For the most part though, she was busy running around the fellowship hall wearing her daddy out!)

Gotta make sure to throw in some candy!

 When we were at the dollar store, Caleb was very interested in getting a Slinky for himself since we told each child they could pick one treat to keep. In the end though, both he and Hadley ended up choosing balloons instead, and he had to leave the toy behind. Thinking quickly, I ended up throwing the beloved Slinky in the cart when he wasn't looking, planning to use it as a stocking stuffer for him later. However, I forgot to take it out of the bags and it ended up at the church with the rest of the goodies to be given away. Right when we were done packing though, I noticed Caleb had one of the toy Slinkys we'd purchased in hand and realized what had happened. Since I had really bought it for him anyway (not to mention he'd been such a good helper and the boxes were pretty full), I let him keep it. You can tell by his face in this picture that he was one happy boy.

Reid didn't get to stuff shoe boxes with the big kids, but he did get to snuggle with our pastor's wife. 

Our goal was 75 shoe boxes and by the end of the party 96 boxes were packed, prayed over, and ready to go!

This is a good ministry and the opportunity to serve in this way was a great activity for our family. It's definitely something we plan to keep taking part in for years to come.