Not Just A Shoe Box Full of Cool Stuff

By Ginny (MAD21)

I love this time of year. Fall is my favorite for many reasons: Beautiful colors; sweaters and sweatshirts; playtime outside without getting eaten alive by mosquitoes; and soccer season are among the things I enjoy. But one of the things I really look forward to is talking to people about one of my most favorite ministries, Samaritan's Purse and Operation Christmas Child.

Operation Christmas Child began in 1990 after a Welch couple viewed a television program depicting the horrors that children faced while living in Romanian orphanages. Heartbroken at the sight of malnourished children suffering in overcrowded orphanages, Dave and Jill Cooke began a local campaign to collect Christmas gifts for the children of war-torn Romania.  In less than three months, the Cooke’s had rallied support and launched a convoy of nine trucks, carrying £500,000 in aid supplies and thousands of gifts packed inside conveniently sized shoe boxes to bring hope and share the love of Jesus with children in Romania. Three years after its onset, the Wales-based Operation Christmas Child merged in a partnership with Samaritan’s Purse, the international Christian relief organization headed by Franklin Graham. The 1993 merger allowed Samaritan’s Purse to share its 20 years of expertise in relief and aid work with Operation Christmas Child, and expanded the reach of the shoe box gifts to over 28,000 children in the first year. (Source: Stacey Wilson, OCC)

Operation Christmas Child has delivered more than 85 million gift-filled shoe boxes to needy boys and girls in 138 countries worldwide since 1993. The ministry is such a blessing. They don’t just walk into communities and give out the boxes, it’s not just charity, and it’s not random. The OCC Shoe Box ministry is part of a larger program that reaches out to families in countries all over the world where Samaritan’s Purse is established (Latin America, Africa, Haiti, Mexico, Columbia, and many more). They work with churches, hospitals, and other organizations to minister to communities. The Leadership Teams personally invite children in the area to come to a party where they play games, sing and listen to a message… and receive an OCC Shoe Box lovingly packed and prayed over by families all around the world.

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One Word At A Time: Farm

By Ginny (MAD21)

This post is a participant in a blog carnival over at Peter Pollock's place.
After you finish here, be sure to go and check out what everyone else wrote on: Farm.

I have personally never lived on a farm. But I grew up in an area that was primarily farm land so I had lots of friends who did. My best friend, for example, lived about 45 minutes away from me. On the only road between us were your standard crops growing pretty much year round, but there were also two particular farms where over the years, we mastered the art of holding our breaths. The first one was the pig farm. I personally think nothing except perhaps chickens and a sugar factory (from beets) stink more than a pig farm <blech!>. But it was a small farm so it wasn't hard to hold our breaths until we were past the smell. But then there was the second farm... I don't remember how many acres Mr. Simplot owned on that particular farm, let's just say it seemed like miles, and miles, and miles... of STEER. On a day with comfortable temperatures it wasn't a big deal to drive by this farm, it smelled, but you could tolerate it for the 10 minutes or so it took you to pass the area. However, on hot and rainy days... that was a whole other story. Ya, we never mastered holding our breaths long enough to get past the smell on those days.

My dad grew up in eastern Idaho on a farm. He spent his entire youth tending the fields (no animals much to my disappointment). There are a few things I remember my dad talking about regarding farm life from his perspective: he HATED overalls (because he was forced to wear them all the time); he was never allowed to plow the ground for new planting because for some reason he couldn't ever drive in lines straight enough for my grandfather or my uncle; and it was HARD work.

Aside from hearing endless farming stories, having fresh fruit and veggies available during the various seasons, the one thing I liked most about growing up around farm land in Idaho was irrigation. I know that is an odd thing like about living near farms, but think about it from a child's perspective... what more could you ask for during the long hot summers but gigantic sprinklers and ditches to jump in and tube down. Seriously awesome. I remember my dad telling me years ago that just one section of a particular kind of irrigation sprinkler was around $250,000. The first thing I thought of? "Wow, that's an expensive sprinkler for me to run through."

Our challenge to Make a Difference... to many.

I talked a little last Friday in my Fingerprint post about how we have such a different perspective when it comes to water in this country than others do in many areas around the world. My friend and co-blogger Matt over at Becoming Last was inspired to do something big, really big.

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