As we drove to the dollar store, I told the kids that they would each be allowed to pick out one thing for themselves AFTER we had gotten what we needed for the shoe boxes, including the shoe boxes themselves. We've been buying the plastic shoe boxes the past couple of years. I attended a meeting a few years back in which a woman who had delivered shoe boxes for Samaritan's purse in South America said that the kids would hold onto the cardboard boxes until they were in tatters. She suggested using the plastic boxes, so we've been doing that ever since.
All things considered, things went pretty well at the store and we came home, ate our lunch and packed the boxes. I'd been trying to explain to the kids about how many children around the world don't even have one toy of their own. This is a foreign concept to them and I could tell they just didn't get it. Then I went to the Samaritan's purse website to print out the labels for the boxes. I found this video and the kids and I watched it. Seeing children receiving their boxes had a greater impact on my kids than all the words they had heard all morning.
We delivered the boxes to the drop-off sight after quiet time. On the way there we prayed for the children that would receive our boxes. Even though the project took us all day to accomplish, it was worth it. Trying to keep the attitude of "it's better to give than to receive" over the next month will be the challenge.
Anyway, boxes can be put together fairly inexpensively. I usually buy hats and mittens on clearance after Christmas for the following year. I also buy markers and crayons when they are really cheap at the back to school sales. As the woman who is the area coordinator for the project here said, "They may be little items or toys that wouldn't be exciting to kids in the U.S., but for these kids they can be life changing." This year, boxes will be accepted until November 24.
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