Hey, Lee Christian!
The week before Thanksgiving was truly amazing. We've been collecting Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes at Lee Christian for about 8 years, and every year it's an incredible blessing. But this year.....
A slight preamble...
In 2019, our goal was 400 shoeboxes. On the day we turned them in, we had 395 boxes;
by that Friday evening, we had 400. We'd finally met a goal I'd set for us for years.
Then March happened, and we watched the world shut down around us.
I honestly wondered if OCC would be canceled along with everything else.
But it wasn't.
We came back to school in August, and everything was fine at LCS. God has blessed our school, and He has kept it safe from Coronavirus. We know, though, that if America is hurting from this virus,
the impoverished countries the shoeboxes go to must be crippled by it.
The need for OCC shoeboxes, and the need for Christ, has never been greater.
The 2020 goal? 500 boxes.
In October, my sixth grade homeroom taught the elementary school how to pack a shoebox, and I took leave of my comfort zone and spoke to the middle and high school students in chapel. Teachers immediately offered help by offering incentives for turning in boxes. A Facebook appeal for masks to put in the boxes drew donations from friends, neighbors, and strangers. November arrived. The moms of the middle school girl's prayer group, my husband's aunt in Oklahoma, my mother-in-law, and my neighbor sent donations so our prayer group could have a packing party. They packed a staggering 93 boxes. Mrs. Ross's FFA had a party the next week and packed over 30. Parents sent donations, kids brought boxes, and by the start of National Collection Week we had over 300 boxes.
Fast forward to Friday, November 20. We ran out of rubber bands by that morning, even though I'd bought a metric ton of them. Boxes came flying in through the day, and at lunch a 7th grade mom brought in about 13...which pushed us to the 500 mark. During 4th period, the 6th graders packed all of the boxes up for their journey to Jonesboro Heights Baptist Church; the boxes would then go on to Charlotte, and from there, all over this world. The boxes took up the beds and back seats of two pickup trucks and the trunk and back of an SUV.
When the final count was taken, Lee Christian School had packed
FIVE HUNDRED AND THIRTY - THREE Operation Christmas Child Shoeboxes.
We didn't just meet our goal. We exceeded it.
Here are some highlights from this year's OCC collection:
- Our elementary students coming into the big kids' building to drop off boxes and to collect a sticker and some candy. The cutie pie little kids were invariably greeted with "awwwwwwww" by our middle school girls.
- Hearing our students talk about seeing other people OCC shopping at Dollar Tree and Walmart - and seeing that we are part of a community of faith. One of my students was asked by a stranger for ideas about what to put in boxes!
- Getting to see my former students come by to ask for boxes or to drop off the full ones. I miss you! Come by any time!
- Watching my co-teachers come in my room, see what I needed help with, and help. Without even asking if I needed them.
- Having this conversation with people who stopped by: "Think you'll meet your goal?"
"Yes, I think we got this!
- Watching middle schoolers place their hands on shoeboxes or wrap one in their arms, close their eyes, and pray over that box. Prayers that the box would go where God needed it to go, prayers for the child who would open it, and prayers that the child would accept Christ because of it
Lee Christian School: you are amazing. Jesus calls us to care for those in need, and you did. Thank you, Mr. Ricabal, for allowing this ministry to continue while a pandemic swirled around us. Thank you, teachers, for allowing this red-and-green interruption into your classrooms, and for encouraging students to pack boxes. Thank you, parents, for taking your kids shopping, for sending donations, and for showing your children that caring for others is important. Thank you, students, for sending love to children you may never meet on this side of Heaven. These little shoeboxes are powerful, because they can free a child from the darkness of sin and bring that child into the light and love of Christ.
What a wonderful reason to be grateful! God makes amazing things happen when we put our faith in Him. Chalk this up to a very good thing that happened in 2020!
Oh, and our goal for 2021? You guessed it. Six. Hundred. OCC. Shoeboxes. We can do it!
Blessings.
Mrs. Kelley Desjarlais
