It took us the majority of a week to sort and wrap the presents that were sent. Many times I would look at the name of the child and then sort through the presents to see what they had received, and tears would come to my eyes knowing how much they were going to love the presents that they received.
It was just so awesome to know that the kids were receiving gifts that were specific to them. To know that someone knows their name and shopped specifically for them and prays for them daily; it just gives me goosebumps thinking about it.
We filled up two rooms and a hallway with the presents, and we enlisted some help from our youth to wrap some of them.
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| Doug and Becca wrapping presents |
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| Michele helping sort and wrap |
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| Some of the presents |
We finally got all of the presents sorted and wrapped, and then it was time to load them up.
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| Eric's truck loaded and completely full!! We did this two nights in a row!! |
Y'all, I tried my very best to capture what it was like passing out the presents and the reaction on the faces of the kids, but it was so hard!! It was just Eric and me passing out the presents with about 50 excited kids that were practically crawling up our arms and legs, so I didn't get as many pictures as I would like to have gotten.
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| Eric giving Andre his presents |
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| Bianca receiving some of her gifts |
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| Jeramiah excited to get his presents. Notice how he doesn't have on a shirt or shoes. I just smiled at him knowing that in those boxes were shoes and clothes that he needed so much!! |
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| David proud of the shoes he received!! |
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| Tony proud of his shoes too!! |
The next night we went to the village of Chuichu. It was amazing driving into the village that night. I (Brittany) was driving the church van with our 2 kids and Eric was behind me in his truck with all the presents. As soon as we rounded the corner to the road we needed to be on, the kids came running toward the van- almost in the middle of the road. I stopped in the middle of the road and they all started piling in the van. We filled it up right away. I had to go drop them off and then we went back and picked up more kids and filled the van up again!!
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| This is Eric taking the picture out of his truck of some of the kids running up to the church van. |
It was a great night!! The kids were so well behaved and they listened so well. Many of the parents came too. They all sat down and I read/taught them about the birth of Christ and what the first Christmas was like. For many, it was the first time to hear. They thought I was going to tell them about Santa Claus, but as I talked their eyes stayed focused on me and they were excited to hear about the true meaning of Christmas.
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| CB helping us see which present belonged to which kid! |
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| This whole box went to his family!!! |
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| Excited, but waiting patiently!! |
When we left that night, I had so much joy!! The kids and parents were truly thankful. I went away excited to know that there was going to be 100 kids who would have something to open up for Christmas this year. But I was more excited thinking that 100 kids plus some parents knew the reason for Christmas- JESUS. And not only did they hear about him, they felt his love sent from around the United States! The seed was planted. I pray that we get to be apart of the harvest!!!!
From the bottom of our hearts, thank you to those who made this year the best Christmas ever!!!!
We love and appreciate you! We thank you for your support and prayers as we finish up our first year in AZ!!
Love,
Brittany
P.S. We are blessed to be able to spend Christmas with our families this year in KY. So you probably won't hear from us for a couple of weeks as we relax and celebrate Christmas and the New Year with them. We'll be back in full swing after that!! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!
