We got to spend a few days in Denver last week helping sort shoeboxes at the processing center for Operation Christmas Child. We had a great time. It really was so much fun.
We’ve packed shoeboxes ever since Renae was around three years old and it’s been a ministry and way of tangibly helping other children that we’ve loved.
It was so fun to get in on the next step of all the work, prayers, people and hands involved in making this, sharing-by-way-of-shoeboxes, work.
{You’ll find a list of items to pack in shoeboxes here and posts with shoebox chit-chat here and here.}
We’d packed shoeboxes for several years, when I learned you could volunteer at the processing center. Volunteers needed to be at least thirteen years old. Our kiddos were far from teenagers at the time, but I remember thinking, “When R&T are old enough, this would be such a fun thing to do.”
I didn’t realize how long and short the years would be and here we’d be in December of 2017.
I did think it sounded like a lot of fun, yet at the same time I didn’t really know what the experience would be like and if it WOULD be a thing we’d love.
It was and we did. We all enjoyed it. The processing center is a happy, bustling place and everyone is there to help and engage in greater good for other people. I don’t know how to explain it. It’s a contagious good feeling, I think, knowing we were all working together and doing one small thing to bless a child somewhere else.
It reminds me again, that no matter how small, the thing we do for someone else, matters. The whispered prayer. The postcard in the mail. The text. The smile as you pass someone in the grocery store aisle. The shoebox that you packed with extra care and poured-over prayer. The cupcakes iced just right for your two-year-old’s birthday. The favorite drink delivered to a doorstep. The hour you spend listening. The time you give to lend a helping hand.
It was beautiful to see the handwritten notes, the pictures of the children sending the boxes, the I love you notes, the Jesus loves you notes, the notes drawn inside the shoebox lids, the handmade items inside the boxes. A lot, a lot, a lot of love and care and time given for someone else.
There’s a lot of hurt and hatred in our world, but there’s a lot of hearts that care too.
There’s a lot of caring and sharing and kindness and compassion and reaching out because of Jesus. THAT’S what we need more of on the nightly news and trending on Twitter.
When we arrived home from Colorado and collected our stack of mail, this CSB Notetaking Bible was waiting for me. It’s my latest review from B&H/Lifeway.
I was smitten with it when I saw it on the review list.
{I have a small collection of Bibles. You can see them and some Bible journaling in this post.}
The CSB Notetaking Bible is a very simple, basic Bible with a splash of beauty across the cover. It’s cloth-covered with a pretty floral print.
The edge of each page is lined for notes.
The pages are somewhat wispy like most Bibles, yet they are a little thicker. I like them.
The back of some pages are completely lined, offering more notetaking space.
This Bible isn’t a study Bible and does not contain some of the extras that study Bibles have.
It has a daily reading plan, including small checkboxes, and a concordance, as well as some maps in the back.
If you want a simple and basic Bible and you love the notetaking option, this one is worth checking out.
It would also make a nice Bible for young girls who like to journal or take notes.
I’m still keeping a dishcloth on my needles, though they haven’t been picked up a lot.
I pulled out these skeins of yarn. I have an idea for a pom-pom wreath I’d like to start!
{Search pom-pom wreath in the search box in my sidebar for other posts with pom-pom wreaths and DIY pom-pom wreath tutorial and Making a Pom-pom tutorial.}
I’m off to try a new recipe for soup and this recipe for Salted Milk Chocolate and Peanut Butter Blondies. Doesn’t the name alone sound delicious?!!!
Oh, and I just finished reading She’s Still There by Chrystal Evans Hurst and really, really liked it. Have you read it?
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