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We knew it was bad because we couldn't get ahold of anybody,
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so we didn't know what was in store. We didn't really know how bad it was.
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I found out everybody was safe. Our drop off locations were excited.
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They were up and going.
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They were also serving as local drop off for donations.
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It was coming in from around the country.
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It was just like a whirlwind of excitement going on to see the churches coming
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together and wanting to help and praying for one
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another. And it was just really an encouraging thing.
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Each year,
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national Collection Week with Operation Christmas Child relies on thousands of
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churches, volunteers,
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and folks just like you to help them spread the gospel of Jesus Christ with
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folks all around the world using a simple shoebox, packed with items like toys,
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essential care items, and school supplies.
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But what does that look like for areas in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene that
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brought devastation to East Tennessee and Western North Carolina? Well,
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I can tell you this, God always has a plan,
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and this is what hope sounds like.
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How do you find and keep hope alive? Alive?
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I'll find hope in what Jesus Christ did for me. Do we believe my hope is
Son,
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totally,
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completely in him?
I have hope today because of what Jesus did on the
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cross. His hope doesn't change is triumph,
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and I try.
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We're so pleased to have the Blue Ridge area Coordinator of Operation Christmas
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Child, Denise Graveley joining us today. Denise, thanks for being here.
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Thank you.
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I know National Collection Week is a big deal and
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it's kind of coming in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
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A lot of our friends, families and neighbors are still cleaning up,
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but there's still a huge mission to fulfill in the job of Operation Christmas
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Child and the work that it does in sharing the gospel with kids
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all across the world. Family's just a wonderful,
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wonderful tool that is used to share the gospel.
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Tell me what that's been like in the aftermath of the storm and trying to get
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prepared for National Collection Week and your duties there with OCC.
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Okay, so as you know,
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after the storm over here where I'm near Brevard,
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there was an eerie silence, and I remember sitting on the back porch,
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we were cooking dinner on the gas stove and I told my husband, I said,
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there's children that live like this every day 24 7,
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they have no cleaned water, they have no electricity,
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and you just really cut off of the world
For what goes on in the world.
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And so I just sit there and I thought, what can we do?
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And I shop all year long.
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So I had so much stuff in my basement that I had already set
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up, started I was going to as I got time.
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Well, it looked like I had plenty of time.
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So my husband and I went downstairs in the basement and the next two days we
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packed 200 shoe boxes by candlelight, so to speak.
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We used a camp and it was just a blessing
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just to know that we were going to make a difference.
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We didn't know what light ahead of us. We didn't know what was going on.
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We heard trees all around us crash during the night wind.
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We had no personal damage at our home,
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but we knew it was bad because we couldn't get ahold of anybody.
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I was able to get out on my husband's satellite on his truck,
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and my son came over. They cut trees down from their homes,
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came to check on us, so we didn't know what was in store.
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We didn't really know how bad it was.
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So as days went on and I was able to start contacting people,
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I was working with Samaritan's Purse about contacting my team,
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making sure everybody was safe. That was their first priority,
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to make sure all of volunteers were safe.
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So I was able to contact my area team in Transylvania
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County and Henderson County along with some of our
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sister counties I was able to reach out to. I found out everybody was safe.
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Our drop off locations were excited. They were up and going.
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They were also serving as local dropoff for donations.
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It was coming in from around the country like crazy,
But
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everybody was excited.
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It was just like a whirlwind of excitement going on to see the churches coming
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together and wanting to help and praying for one
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another, and it was just really an encouraging thing.
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And so just talking to them and hearing from them. So as the weeks went on,
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we're preparing for National Collection Week, we're preparing our team,
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and I started hearing stories about this church over here felt led to pack
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shoe boxes early,
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so they packed 1200 shoe boxes on Labor Day weekend.
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Another church packed 700 shoe boxes the week before the storm.
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And I'm like, wow, this is God. This is what God's doing.
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He knows the children.
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He wants to come to know him this year.
And so I was just so excited hearing
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these stories and hearing that people were packing boxes anyway
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and our churches were on board, and I started seeing Facebook posts of,
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I got shoe boxes that was in my basement and I had to get 'em out because it was
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flooding. I need help. Where can I store 'em?
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And I saw another church jump on that website,
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that Facebook feed and say, I'll get your boxes. We'll help you store 'em.
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And just to hear and see all the churches.
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I just told my husband, I said, the church has left the building.
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It was just incredible and I feel blessed to be a part of it.
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I feel blessed to encourage people because these boxes are making a
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difference.
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For.
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Eternity in the lives of children that have no hope.
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As far as the effects in East Tennessee, western North Carolina,
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the upstate of South Carolina, Southwestern Virginia,
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were there any churches that were damaged and
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that couldn't take on becoming a distribution center for OCC and for
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National Collection Week.
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I know of three Drop-off locations across about 14 counties
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in western North Carolina. There's only three that's not stepping up.
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One of them is a cove.
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Because.
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They're serving as a relief training center.
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The other two
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one was in Black Mountain and it was hit hard, so that's understandable.
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But we've got a couple of churches that had damage
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and they've mudded out their basements and they are open for business for
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shoe boxes that down in Lake Lure.
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We've got a drop off location down there that's really excited.
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They've been feeding hundreds of people every day and
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their basement flooded,
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but they are opening up on Monday evening to collect shoe
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boxes in that area throughout that area.
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I think that Denise,
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I think that speaks to just the importance of this
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mission in this initiative.
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When the storm first hit and we were going through everything and we were trying
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to kind of come back and recalibrate and say, okay,
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what have we got coming up and what all is this going to affect?
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And I remember National Collection Week coming up and I thought, man,
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I kind of started to become a Debbie Downer a little bit. I was like, man,
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this is going to affect so much.
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And you start hearing the devastation in the areas and knowing how many
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churches partner with OCC in this region to become
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drop-off points.
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So to hear that God has spared so many of those churches and even the
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ones that were affected got to work
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so that they could open up and get ready for that.
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I think that just goes to show the importance of how God uses this initiative
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and the mission of OCC and the sense of joy that it brings to those people that
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are serving in this.
They want a little bit of normalcy back from all the
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devastation and all the stuff that's happened,
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and this is one thing that's coming back in and saying, Hey,
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here's some normalcy. Here's some joy,
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and here's a great way to share gospel with children around the world.
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And so I'm just so grateful to hear that and to hear that
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the work is still continuing and that folks are excited about it.
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I think that's something huge.
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There's a lot of questions out there and maybe there's folks that are listening
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and that are watching that say, well,
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I was affected by the storm.
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So many people have been affected in so many different ways,
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whether it's their jobs, their homes, their belongings, their families.
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What is a word of advice that you would share with 'em, Denise,
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of maybe they're not in a place where they can pack a shoebox or go online
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and pack a shoebox,
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but they still want to be involved in some way.
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What would you tell somebody that's facing that situation right now?
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Well, first of all, I'd ask 'em to pray for us.
Pray for all the volunteers.
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There's 11,000 volunteers across the United States,
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and we're going to have drop off locations all across the United States.
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So we asked for the prayer, we asked for prayer for those distributions,
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the traveling of the boxes,
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and then also if they're at home and a lot of the
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distribution sites for relief supplies have closed and moved
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further west in some harder hit areas.
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If you see a drop off location in your area,
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go there and see if you can help.
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See if you can volunteer throughout the week.
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You won't meet the better group of people than operation Christmas
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Child people. They love children. They love to shop.
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They love to do the Lord's work, and they welcome your help.
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We have several dropoff locations that, like I said,
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I know of 17 across four counties,
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and you can just go to the zip code locator on samarius
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purse.org and put in the dropoff nearest you,
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and you can go help.
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They love short-term volunteers to come and help next week.
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There's very different opportunities or just go hang out,
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be a greeter.
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Just thank people for bringing a shoebox.
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Pray.
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For them.
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Find out their story about the storm and how they were affected
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and then pray for them.
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Because I'm a firm believer bad things don't happen without God's in the
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middle of it.
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Yes, ma'am.
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He wasn't surprised. He's going to do some awesome things through this storm.
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I love it.
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And prayer is certainly the number one thing that people can help
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focus on in this effort in the efforts of OCC,
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especially for National Collection Week. Even if you're packing boxes, pray,
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you can never get enough prayer with the initiative and with everything that's
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going on in the mission of these boxes,
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for anybody that's listening or watching and they're just kind of learning about
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Operation Christmas child and what they do.
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A lot of the times myself, when I was growing up,
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we would pack boxes at our church. And
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as a little kid, you just think, okay, well,
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we're putting some toys and some things together for a child that's less
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fortunate than we are,
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and it's going to wind up in a foreign country somewhere,
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and they're going to open it up and see a note that says Jesus loves you and
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that's it. They're going to be encouraged in Christ,
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but this box goes so much deeper than that.
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Talk a little bit about the ministry behind that shoe box.
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Well, anybody can pack a shoebox.
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You can be three years old to 103.
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You just take an empty shoebox, a regular sized shoe box,
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fill it with hygiene items, school supplies.
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We encourage a wow item such as a soccer ball, cars,
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trucks, dolls, stuffed animals.
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It is just simple to do. You can follow your shoebox online.
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You can go on samaritan's purse.org and purchase your
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label, which pays for your shipping and handling,
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which is more than what you think.
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There's no way you could send a shoebox to South Africa for
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$10.
So for that $10 is going toward
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the greatest gift. That's a booklet that's given with every shoebox.
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When the child receives that box, first of all,
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they'll hear the gospel from ministry partners as they're giving the boxes
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out, they share the gospel with the children, then they give them the gift,
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and each child gets a little like a comic book,
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child friendly,
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greatest gift booklet that explains the life of Jesus from the Book of
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John.
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And then they're invited back to join into a discipleship
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lesson called The Greatest Journey.
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And those children can come back for the next 12 weeks and
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they're discipled. At the end of the lesson,
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I think is maybe the 10th lesson, ninth or 10th lesson. The children
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are encouraged to share the gospel with their family and with their community.
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And these children are so bold, they're doing it,
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so they're going out and we're seeing churches planted,
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churches growing.
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We're seeing different religious and ethnic groups come together
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because of the gospel.
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It is just an exciting thing to see,
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and the children are being discipled and said that Discipleships could
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change the course of that nation with the power of the gospel.
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Yeah,
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we had the chance to go to Grenada back in 2018 and hand out shoe
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boxes, and that was the thing that stuck out to me the most.
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Handing the shoe boxes out was awesome. I'll never forget it.
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To get to hand a shoebox to a child and share the love of Christ with 'em
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and to get to see their face and their excitement,
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but then seeing the after effect of that discipleship journey that you're
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talking about there,
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I kind of saw it as like a little miniature vacation Bible school.
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We have a vacation Bible school in churches around here,
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and it's like a Bible school for those kids. And they are ministered to,
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they are discipled, and they do exactly that, man.
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They go home and they're so excited to share what they've learned and to be able
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to tell their family, Hey, we have a bigger hope,
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a greater hope than just what's in this shoebox. And that's the love of Jesus.
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Jesus has brought this to us,
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and he wants to come into a relationship with us as his savior,
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and to see the families turn around and come to Christ and whole communities get
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formed from these churches and these outreach programs that happened through OCC
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that was just so eyeopening to me.
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And I think it's such an important message in the mission of OCC and how it
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works and how deeply God is in
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this.
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I'll share a story if I have time to share a story that someone that
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went to Ecuador on a distribution trip, what he witnessed,
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and I say this to encourage people to pack a
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full personalized box with a wow item
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because these are carrying the message of the gospel.
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And my friend that went on this trip said that there was a child who received a
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shoe boxes and kids, they're all the same around the world.
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Kids see what other kids get.
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They're just like our kids.
And so this one little boy opened up his
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box and everybody was opening up their box and was excited,
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excited and laughing.
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And this one little boy opened up his box and it didn't really have the
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quality things that's recommended on the brochure.
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And so the little boy, he started crying.
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So my friend went over there and he says, my son, why are you crying?
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And he said, well, my boxes. I didn't get those gifts. Well,
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now just remember he just heard how Jesus loved him and how special he was and
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how chosen he is, and he just heard the greatest story of all,
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the greatest love story of all,
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and his box didn't match what he had just heard.
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So my friend ran back, he said, I'm going to sift. There's more boxes.
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He went to get a box. He came back with that box to find that little boy,
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and the little boy was gone.
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He shared on this zoom call I was on with him. He shared, he says,
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I couldn't help but to think,
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did that little boy walk off into eternity and was lost
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forever because of
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his? Maybe he didn't feel bad because we know that the enemy is fierce
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Against anything to do with the gospel of Jesus.
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And so my friend just shared that story to encourage
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us to remember who we're representing when you pack a shoebox.
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We're grateful for every item,
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but make sure that it represents the Lord Jesus.
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And.
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His gift of life and hope.
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Yeah, that's right.
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There's a list of recommendations and items that can and cannot be included.
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We're going to have that on our website too with the light fm.org/occ.
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You can find all the details with Samaritan's Purse and National Collection
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Week, all those drop off locations.
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It's so easy to find a drop off distribution center nearest
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you with their locator. We'll have that up on our page too.
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So some important things to remember about all this in the aftermath of the lean
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OCC is still running strong.
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The gospel is still being spread with kids across the world and
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your help is still needed.
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Whether that looks like packing a shoebox in person and dropping it off at a
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distribution center or packing one online,
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you can do that on the light fm.org as well. We've got a donation site,
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a collection space set up for virtual shoe boxes there that we would love to
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have you join and be a part of.
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Or if it's just simply joining in prayer for the mission of OCC
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and praying that the gospel will continue to be spread through these shoe boxes
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all around the world. Denise, thank you for joining us today. Thank you.
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I'm so grateful to hear that you and your team are good in the aftermath of a
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lean and that God had his hand on it all along from having these
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churches decide to pack shoe boxes early through providing safety
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throughout the storm. And it's time to go back to work for OCC now.
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Yes, Monday. That's.
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It. We wake up Monday. Monday.
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The 18th through the 25th.
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The 18th through the, we'll see all that. That's right. That's awesome.
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And all the details again, can be found@thelightfm.org slash
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cc, and that is what hope sounds like.