Operation Christmas Child

A few weeks ago Martine came to church and quietly asked me if I thought we could do this, she handed me a brochure about Operation Christmas Child. She heard about it and liked the idea but didn't know if our church could do it. I got so excited for two reasons 1. Martine came up with the idea herself and 2. It was something that our little church could handle. I told her it was a great idea and she should lead it. With a mix of fear and excitement she told the church about it. She challenged them to do 3 boxes, but they said they thought they could do 5! The next week we put one small table in the front of the church for people to put their items on. You should have seen the excitement as everyone put their items on the table, that quickly was too full. We had to add another table. Anne, who lives in a nursing home and has nothing extra to give, came in with a HUGE smile and handed us TWO bags of toys! She told the nurses about what we were doing and they gave her things to bring in. Martine was overwhelmed. We didn't have enough boxes to hold all the items! That Sunday we put together 6 boxes. At Friday night bible study we put together 10 more boxes! That's a total of 16! This has been such a good project for us and it gave Martine a chance to lead us. God is at work in Martine's life and we see an emerging leader in her. Would you pray that God will continue to give her confidence to step out in faith and lead.

Deann