November: Time to be Thankful, Care and Share

It’s the first of November, which means the holidays are quickly approaching. Although we should always be thankful for the many blessings we receive, this is the time of year that those things especially come to mind. We have gatherings with family and friends. We laugh and share memories.

The children start making Christmas lists and thinking about the things they are hoping to get. It’s a good time of year to introduce your children to the fact that there are children, around the world, with much less than they have.

Introducing Your Child to Sharing/Caring

If you have been following me for a while, you know that I like to start out any learning experience with a book. I found a good book on my Epic! App. It is titled, “Sharing with Others”. I found a few copies on Amazon by third-party sellers (affiliate links included). The book shared how everyone has needs but we don’t NEED the most expensive items. It talks about who and how people earn money and that some people don’t make enough money for the things they need. The book gives examples of how to share (donate) items and money to help others. Even how donating our time can be very helpful. I like this book as a starting point for conversations on how we can help others.

Operation Christmas Child

An event I have enjoyed supporting, for many years, is Operation Christmas Child. It is sponsored by a ministry called Samaritan’s Purse. In the past, I have participated in this event with my children. This year I was able to introduce it to my grandchildren. I have wanted to do this with them the last couple of years but by the time I think about it, it’s too late. I stopped by Hobby Lobby, in October, and saw a display reminding me about the event.

How It Works

It is a fairly simple concept, which is one of the reasons I like it so much. You take a shoe box and fill it full of items that will then be delivered to a boy or girl (your choice), in a foreign country. The Samaritan’s Purse site gives you ideas of things you can (and can’t) put into the boxes.

Our Adventure

The Boxes

The grand-babies and I jumped in the car and headed to Hobby Lobby. I thought I had seen the cardboard boxes that we used to get from our church, but that is not what they had. I don’t know if all of the cardboard boxes were gone or if I had been so excited to see the display that I didn’t really look at it closely.

You see, when my children were young we either picked up special Operation Christmas Child boxes at our church, or we simply used an old shoe box we had around the house. Hobby Lobby had nice plastic ones that we could purchase.

I considered not purchasing the boxes and just going home and getting an old shoe box but I had already explained, to the children, what we were doing. They were excited so I wanted to move forward with the project. I had them each pick up a box, a lid, and a pamphlet, explaining what we could and couldn’t put in the boxes.

Shopping

Amaya

I decided to make it easy on myself and take the children shopping one at a time. I took Amaya first. She is 2 years old. I was a little worried that she wasn’t going to understand that we were not buying things for her but that she was picking things out for a friend that couldn’t afford them. I was very proud of her.

The first thing she wanted was a pair of sunglasses. I reminded her that they were for her friend and she said, “Ok.” I was finally convinced that she understood when she picked a pack of hairbands for her friend and then told me that she needed some too. Amaya picked out some useful things (guided my me) such as a hair brush, toothbrush, hairbands, washcloth and sunglasses. She also picked up some less practical things like bracelets, stickers, a mermaid doll (Amaya is REALLY into mermaids.) and a washcloth/hand puppet.

The “Wow” Item

The pamphlet from Samaritan’s Purse suggested we put a “wow” item in the box. I decided on a piece of clothing as our special item. Amaya and I headed to Kohl’s. We found a really cute little sundress, on the clearance rack. I bought one for the box and one for Amaya. I thought it might be exciting for Amaya and her friend to have matching dresses.

Keagan

Now that we had the items for Amaya’s box it was time to take Keagan shopping. He is 5 years old. The practical items that Keagan picked out were a brush and comb set, socks, toothbrush, washcloth, bandaids, a small notebook and crayons. The fun items he chose, for his friend, were a set of paints (watercolors), a ball, a Rubik’s cube style toy, some stickers and a dinosaur that you can sail through the air. I picked up the “wow” item earlier when Amaya and I were at Kohl’s. I chose a tee shirt with a monster truck on it, for Keagan and his friend.

Packing Our Boxes

Now that the shopping was done, we put everything into our plastic boxes. We placed the special “wow” items (dress/shirt) on top. I took a picture of each of the grand-babies, in their special piece of clothing, holding the packed Operation Child Christmas box. We will place a picture in each box for their special friend.

Shipping

We now need to find a place to drop our boxes off. You can go to the Samaritan’s Purse site and find a drop-off location near you. There is a suggested donation of $9, per box, to help with shipping. In the past, when I participated through my church, I didn’t have to add the shipping, although it was helpful. You should check with the site you are dropping off at, to see if they require the shipping cost or not. Samaritan’s Purse has an option, this year, if you donate the shipping cost online, you will be able to track the boxes. I decided to do that so the grand-babies and I can see where our boxes go.

Final Thoughts

I have always enjoyed participating in this event. I’m glad to have included my grand-babies this year. Hopefully, they will begin to see the needs of others and have a heart to help out. Since my grand-babies are young, I purchased the items this year but it will be a good future lesson for them to learn to save some of their own money to help purchase these items.

The National Collection Week for the boxes is November 12 – 19. Although this date is upon us, you still have time to participate. If you have never done anything like this before, I highly recommend it. It is a lot of fun and it has been especially rewarding sharing it with my grand-babies.