Walk Through Bethlehem

We had a wonderful time at Operation Christmas Child, but we weren't finished yet.  Our day continued with a yummy Mexican dinner at. . .

Mauricio's Mexican Food

Queen Barbara was waiting for us, and Sylvia joined us for the rest of our evening.

Queen Barbara, Debbie, Shelly, Sylvia, Annie, Joy, Carol

 After dinner, we continued on to . . .

Grace Church of Glendora

The Church was so pretty all decorated for Christmas

and the Walk Through Bethlehem event

What a nice surprise Queen Barbara had for us . . . .

Queen Barbara

A tail-gate coffee/tea party

The Walk Through Bethlehem was awesome . . . Check out the photos . . . .

Waiting in line to enter the village

How cool to see a camel so up close and personal

Musicians and dancers entertained us along the way

Past the Roman Guards and through the gates

King Herod had just sent the Wise Men on their way as we passed the tax collector

and then past the guards in front of the prison

 and through the village.

The village ladies weren't sure about our hats - just look at their faces

We entered the busy market place

full of villagers, visitors and vendors of all kinds

The pottery maker

The fishermen with the fresh catch of the day

All sizes and shapes of bowls, urns, and vessels

Chickens and fresh laid eggs

You could even buy a cute little goat - Bob almost did!

The children's choir entertained us

and the town beggar was hoping for hand-outs

Finally we made our way to the stable to see Joseph, Mary, and the Baby Jesus

Grace Church does an amazing job of recreating Bethlehem and what it might have been like all those many years ago.  And they really get into it.  The church members were all in character and no matter what you said to them, they stayed in character.  You truly felt as though you had taken a time-machine back 2000 years.  They were very curious about our cameras and cell phones, believed them to be some sort of "magic" that was scary to them.  It was so very very cool!  Thank you Queen Barbara, for such a wonderful evening and the perfect way to kick off the Christmas season.

Carol, Annie, Joy, Bob, Sylvia, Queen Barbara, Debbie, Shelly

Operation Christmas Child

What an amazing place this is, so full of happy people who are so excited about processing thousands and thousands of shoe boxes that will be sent overseas to a whole lot of very special kids, some who may never have received a gift before in their entire lives.  And we get to help!  What an honor and privilege to be part of something this wonderful and this special.

Operation Christmas Child Warehouse in Irvine, CA

Inside the warehouse we went through the registration process and then, while we were waiting for our turn in the training room, we just had to pose for a group picture . . .

Carol, Debbie, Joy, Shelly, Tina, Annie, Carol, Daniela

After training, we were assigned to our stations.  Most of us were "inspectors" and we worked in teams of two.  Our job was to remove the shipping fees from the box, and then thoroughly sort through each and every box to be sure there were no "unallowed" items, such as food, chocolate (except Tootsie Rolls which are OK), liquids, glass items, or anything that would be considered "war related".  These items must be removed (they are used for other purposes but they cannot be included in the shoe boxes).  Every box MUST have hard candy in it and if there isn't any, we add some.  Also, if the box is under-filled, or we have removed items, we are to add in some extra items that are provided at our work stations.  Here are our "inspectors" . . .

Debbie and her sister, Carol

 

Annie and Bonnie

Daniela and Shelly

Joy and Carol

We also had to be sure each box was marked "Boy" or "Girl" and the age range was indicated.  The boxes were then passed to the "taper" . . . .

Tina did a great job taping the boxes closed

Next the boxes are packed into shipping cartons according to girl/boy and age.  Each shipping carton must contain a minimum of 14 shoe boxes, and it's often quite a challenge to make the various size boxes fit.  The special shoe boxes that are given out at church fit perfectly, but regular shoe boxes or plastic boxes require a little coaxing . . .

Shipping Cartons

The cartons are then sealed and placed on the conveyor belt to the staging area . . .

The Conveyor Belt

These cartons are staged and ready for shipment

There are six processing centers throughout the USA, and each center processes thousands and thousands of shoe boxes during a three-week period from mid-November to early December.  The Irvine warehouse had a goal of 700,000 boxes.  We were among the last group of volunteers and when we left, the total had reached 702,000!

The Shoe-Box Processing Meter (not fully updated)

One Last Photo at the End of our Shift

This was our second year to help with the shoe-boxes, and we're very ready and  eager to do it again next year!  What an awesome outreach and avenue to spread the Word of Jesus to kids all over the world.  Yea God!

But our day wasn't over . . . . We still had another event to go to.  Read on . . . .