Sharing Shoeboxes

This year ashgrove collected over 130 shoeboxes for the Samaritans Purse Christmas Shoebox Appeal. This week we learn about how ashgrove first got involved with this great idea and the effects these boxes have, not just to those in need, but to those in our community too.

It all began way back in 1999, when ashgrove sent a team of people on a short-term mission to Kosovo (after the civil tragedies there), to join with other NGO relief workers. Andrew Colen was on that team and part of his role was to deliver Samaritan Purse Christmas shoeboxes to the local children. When he returned, he shared with Mandy (his girlfriend at that time) what a blessing and encouragement those boxes were to the traumatised children and their parents. Mandy and her mum, Jo Sweetman made up some shoeboxes and so started the new ashgrove tradition.

ashgrove has now been involved in this for over 7 years, each year showing generosity and love as more and more boxes are contributed:

"I took a pack of five boxes in to work and left them on the kitchen bench with a brochure about Operation Christmas Child attached to each box, plus a note of when I needed them return to me at work by. I also sent an email around to all the staff on my level with a link to the internet site. I felt that leaving them on the kitchen bench meant that people could take them anonymously and not feel pressured. ..Everyone loved the idea. They were especially interested in where the boxes ended up, so I am planning to send a follow up email to everyone telling them where my boxes ended up. I am hoping as I do it each year people will be used to it and be more prepared and enthusiastic to join in."

"My first trip to the Collection Centre at Hyde Road Yeronga one evening in 2008, was a huge 'eye-opener'. It's warehouse-style with a loading dock stacked high with pallets of Christmas-wrapped shoe boxes. Behind are long rows of work tables where teams of volunteers unpack, check and repack boxes, surrounded by cartons of 'extras' to add where necessary. What struck me was their cheerfulness as they worked, though many are there for hours at a time. One particularly cheerful and chatty gentleman offered to take me on a tour and explain what was happening. So I met the volunteers and watched the process for a few minutes. It's tedious and repetitive but I guess thinking of the excited little person who will open the box at the "other end" makes it all worthwhile."

"I went into the newsagent at ashgrove to buy pencil sharpeners for the boxes and it came into the conversion what I was doing with them. The man serving me said that he had a box full of free bits and pieces from magazines that he would be happy to contribute. He then went through the box and gave me quite of lot of useful things like notebooks, pencils, necklaces, toys, and he told me that next year if I gave him more notice he would collect stuff for me, so that was very encouraging."

According to the collection centre, ashgrove's shoeboxes will be going to Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, PNG, Vanuatu, Samoa and Fiji.
And a few more facts...
While the Brisbane effort seems rather huge, it is just a small part of a world-wide Operation Christmas Child effort by Samaritans Purse to collect and distribute boxes to many different parts of the world each Christmas.

8 million children received shoe boxes last year
over 95 countries have received shoe boxes since 1993
ONE MISSION: To demonstrate God's love in a tangible way to needy children around the world, and together with the local church worldwide, to share the Good News of Jesus Christ.