A month or so ago, Rebekah Owens, (niece) called to ask about some items for Operation Christmas Child Shoeboxes. Her church donates over 50 shoeboxes to the ministry, which is part of Samaritan's Purse, giving Christmas gifts to children in poor countries who would otherwise not receive any gifts.
I mentioned that we would be volunteering at the Denver Processing Center on December 2, and would she like to come do it with us? She "happened" to have that week off work (ICU nurse), so she made arrangements and flew out on December 1-4. Rebekah had not been out to Colorado since 2008 (Tim and Brenda's wedding), even though she regularly goes to exotic places like Brazil on missions trips, so we felt SO SPECIAL that she would come and spend time with us! We had a great time with her! Emily played her violin with Rebekah several times
and Elizabeth and Rebekah played dueling pianos, practicing up on their Christmas carols.
On Wednesday, December 2, we made our way to Denver where the Processing Center is set up in an accessible warehouse, every year a slightly different location.
We planned our arrival to be one hour early so we could eat lunch before beginning our four-hour (1-5pm) volunteer shift. These lovely ladies occupied one side of the break table. So happy Joanna could join us, and that Elizabeth was off work so she could come.
On the other side of the table, we balanced out the lovely ladies. Rowen took a vacation day for the occasion because he loves helping/volunteering/serving others.
This board represented the shoe boxes that had already been processed through the Denver facility through December 1.
The big sign that reminded us where we were in case we forgot! :)
The processing floor.
New to us this year was this prayer wall. There were many pictures of children to pray for. When you chose someone to pray for, you wrote a prayer on the back and pinned it back up with the prayer showing. The goal is to have all those children, representing many needy children, prayed for before the boxes are all processed.
Emily writing her prayer.
After we wrote our prayers, we went to the training area where a staff person explained all the jobs.
This was our group in the training area. There were others trained at the same time, and one of us took their pictures. :)
Elizabeth taped boxes shut after they were inspected. Rowen put boxes into cartons for shipping.
Joanna scanned bar codes on shoe box labels and the shipping cartons.
Rebekah inspected shoe boxes for inappropriate items like liquids, breakables, chocolates.
Janet looked through boxes for money/checks/envelopes for shipping donations.
Elizabeth using the tape machine.
Emily taping boxes
There was a seemingly unlimited supply of more boxes to look through!
Each carton was designated Girl or Boy, and three different age groups. There needed to be at least 15 boxes in a carton.
Rebekah tried her hand at taping.
Joanna took a turn at taping.
We posed in front of the beautiful Christmas tree when we were finished with our shift.
After fighting "rush hour" traffic, we made it to Randy and Joy's house for supper.
After that, reading books and visiting happened. Jonathan and Jewelyn had never met Rebekah before this trip, but they warmed up to her right away!
The front of Randy's house decorated for Christmas
The front of the church
The sign on the corner of the church lot that Randy made.
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