Junel's Box Delivery

Christmas is a season of giving.  I know of many families and individuals in America who do different things to help people in need during this special time of year.  There are food drives, toy drives, dinners for homeless people, Operation Christmas Child boxes, Angel Tree gifts, and the list goes on!  Well, we have our own special way of helping people in need during Christmas here at CSC.

Every year, our social workers choose a hard-working, but very poor, family who goes to church and doesn't have bad addictions or anything.  This becomes the family that we help for Christmas that year.  Then our kids get to choose how much money they want to give towards buying gifts for the family. 

You see, our kids get a small allowance that they can choose to spend on something small, or save for something a little bigger eventually.  At Christmastime, they are told how much allowance savings they have, and they get to choose how much they want to give away towards this needy family.  This year as the box was out, nearly all of the older kids told Auntie Sandy they wanted to give "ALL".  They gave their entire allowance savings away!  Some kids said that the poor family needed it more than they do.  Some of them remember how poor they used to be and understand what it means to be in need.  All of our kids gave something, even though they didn't have to.  It was amazing to see their kindness and generosity - the true spirit of Christmas!

So Sunday was the day that we packed up all the kids 6 years and up and headed out to a rural area to deliver the much-needed necessities and some goodies to our "adopted" family.  The kids had been anxiously awaiting that day.  That morning at church, Leheca was nearly bouncing up and down, exclaiming, "This is the day we bring things to the poor family!!!!"  After driving on a narrow road up into the hills, we parked and hiked up a steep hill, through a small makeshift cornfield, beside several shacks and roosters, and then arrived at the family's house....all the while, with huge smiles on the kids faces as the joy of giving overflowed from their hearts!

A big pile was made of all the things we'd bought for the family, and the kids stood around very proud.  It was explained to the family that these kids had given their own money to buy all these supplies.  What a great moment for the kids, and for them to see how much it touched this family.  We sang "We Wish You a Merry Christmas", took a few pictures, then hiked our way back to the car.  It was a brief, but powerful few moments.

It was a truly memorable day.  I love that we make it possible for our kids to participate in such a great experience like this.  These kids once had almost nothing, and now that they are well taken care of, they are learning how to give to people who are in the position they were once in.  What an amazing thing to see God plant generosity in these children's hearts!!