One thing I love about my family is how
spontaneous we are. Homeschooling gives us a lot more freedom to just up and do
things that we want to do! Take Monday for example. Our “Uncle”
Paul has been collecting shoes from people at our church to send to the
missionaries in Haiti. The “Haiti Closet” in our church basement has been
filling up quickly with donations and donated cardboard boxes. But since Uncle
Paul is
now at another church preparing to become the Children’s Director, he hasn’t
been able to handle the donations coming from our church. He’s also just about
the busiest person on the planet that I know! J
Because our family is preparing for
Thanksgiving and having a revolving-door sort of weekend with lots of guests
coming in and out, we took the week off of school. Monday morning Mom emailed
Uncle Paul and asked if we could go to the church and pack up some of the shoes
for him. A few hours later we got the go-ahead from him. We left five minutes
later, bound for church!
We
pulled out all the donated boxes and all the bags of shoes from the room into a
Sunday school room across the hall so that we’d have more room to work.
Photo
Credit: Roma.
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Our
operation spread clear down the hallway.
Photo
Credit: Roma.
|
We
ripped open dozens of bags of shoes and organized them. Shoes that just weren’t
nice enough to send, shoes without matches, and good shoes with matches.
Photo
Credit: Roma.
|
While
some people unpacked, sorted, and matched shoes, others started packing the
boxes. I think the record for the number of pairs of shoes in one box was 50
pairs.
Photo
Credit: Roma.
|
Part way through, Ben and I had to run out to
Wal-Mart to buy more packing tape. We had been expecting to run out of boxes or
shoes, but not tape! Once we were finished (when we used up all the boxes we
had), we had packed 17 large cardboard boxes as full as we could. We still had
two suitcases full of leftover good shoes to send to Haiti. We also had about
200 pairs of dress-type shoes that will be donated to a local shelter (we chose
not to send them because they’re just not as practical for the mountain terrain.)
And we’re still expecting another truck-load of shoes from another church!
We hadn’t been expecting to have quite that many boxes, so we made a quick
phone call to Uncle Paul to ask what he wanted us to do with them. In the end, he
came to church and helped us move all the boxes into a utility room temporarily
until he can start to ship them.
17
boxes and 3 ½ hours of work later, we were able to pack 530 pairs of shoes!! God’s provision is incredible!
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We chatted with Uncle Paul for awhile before saying
goodbye. Since it was so late, our family continued its spontaneous streak by
going to Taco Bell for dinner. It ended up being a rather cold experience for
me. I don’t recommend dumping ice water in your lap at the beginning of the
meal. Just something to keep in mind for your future comfort.J
What a great ministry! Shoes are very valuable over there.
ReplyDeleteAt least it was only water that you dumped on yourself. If it would have been pop, you would have not only had a sticky mess on hand, but you would've also had to admit to drinking an unhealthy beverage.
:)
ReplyDeleteLexi
This must have been alot of work. Wish we would have known and we would have helped you out!!!
ReplyDeleteIt probably was good that it was only water I spilled, Lydia, for the reasons you mentioned! :-) I admit, I've had more pop than I should lately. I need to cut back!
ReplyDelete~Bianca
:-) :-) :-)
ReplyDelete~Bianca
Yay! Aunt Noelle can comment now! :-) It was a fair amount of work, but it was our pleasure to do it. In fact, some more shoes came in today that I sorted out before church. We may have to set a cut-off date for donations or we're going to end up with way more shoes than we can send!
ReplyDelete~Bianca