Once again we are at the Operation Christmas Child Warehouse in Irvine to help inspect and carton shoeboxes before they are shipped off to children all over the world. This is always such a fun and rewarding experience, and seeing how many shoeboxes go through just this one warehouse in just one day never ceases to be amazing. Multiply that by the 23 days during which the processing takes place, and then multiply again by the 8 processing centers around just our country, and the number of shoeboxes is incredible. Can you picture the smiling faces of the millions of children who will receive these special gifts?
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| Operation Christmas Child |
Each shoebox has quite a journey ahead of it . . .
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| Journey of a Shoebox |
As always, we went through the training session before being assigned to our work station. Our group was on the small side, so we were teamed up with a group of teenagers from Northern California. It was fun but definitely a challenge to keep up with them and match their energy.
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| Our Workstation |
We changed jobs around a bit this year . . .
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Chris started the process by opening each shoebox and
removing the envelope containing the money for shipping |
The teenagers then checked each shoebox to be sure there were no unauthorized items, such as glass, liquids, food, etc.
Next it was Joy's job to circle each box with a band of tape, making sure it doesn't come open during shipment. (Oops, we forgot to take a photo of her in action.)
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Debbie and Carol L then sorted the shoeboxes by boy/girl and age group,
and put them into the appropriate shipping carton.
They also scanned any box with a "Follow Your Box" label,
so the donor would know what country their shoebox went to. |
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Dixie and Anita worked in another area of the warehouse,
rolling T-shirts and other items that could be added into
the shoeboxes where a "little something" was needed to fill empty space. |
This year there was something new to add into every shoebox . . .
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| A wonderful message of salvation |
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Just a tiny peak at how large the warehouse is and how many people
volunteer on each shift. |
Somewhere in the middle of our shift, we were dismissed to take a break . . . It was nice to sit down and relax for a few minutes and nibble on some snacks . . .
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| Break Time |
No evening at the Operation Christmas Child Processing Center is complete without a photo by the beautiful Christmas tree . . .
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| Debbie, Carol L, Chris, Joy, Dixie, Anita |
What a blessing to be just a small part of this amazing operation every year. It might even be more of a gift to us than it is to the children who receive the boxes . . . How fun it would be to actually be there when the boxes are handed out . . . To see something like this . . .
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| Just look at the huge smiles and excitement on those beautiful faces. |
Thanks, Queen Debbie, for organizing our outreach projects. It's the best part of our year!
