Your Generosity is Amazing!

August 22, 2010

All I can say is wow! We are truly moved by the generosity and power of this community in Sandy, Utah.

2 weeks
+1 Eagle Scout candidate
+345 boxes
+your kindness and generosity
= 16′ x 8′ x 8′ POD container filled with excess

These goods will bless the lives of many, many people in the Philippines. Many of whom are now our friends but all of whom are God’s children and are doing the best they can to improve their lives. Many are placed in extremely challenging circumstances. Many pray to God on a daily basis for blessings of food, clothing, jobs and education. You have provided many of these items and opportunities. Thank you.

Its hard to describe some of the feelings I had as I was moving boxes, packing boxes, and just watching the hand of God through you as goods came flooding on to our porch, garage and driveway. I would see so many items recently purchased just to fulfill some of the specific requests (things like boy’s underwear, undershirts, tooth brushes/paste, back packs, oatmeal, shoes, bikes, toys, dry pack goods, etc.). Plus buckets of sugar, flour, wheat, beans, oats, soup mix, and more.

Here are some brand new children’s black shoes that are needed for their schooling. Also, new bikes that were returned to the store for minor blemishes.

New Shoes (and Tang!)

Bikes for the kids

I love watching these things come together…I love to see the little miracles as God inspires people, provides blessings to everyone who participates, creates opportunities, and offers His spirit to all because of a good work. This project would have never happened if our good friend Alissa Packer hadn’t volunteered to take charge once I left town on August 18. I wanted to do it but didn’t want to make a commitment that I couldn’t see through…but Alissa assured me that she would see it through. Then after we made our commitment and started to get the word out, the project was blessed because a boy was in need of an Eagle Scout project and he stepped forward and volunteered to organize, count and provide logistics for the project while our family was away. So on the evening of August 17 Christian and his friends JP and Will came over and organized, boxed, and loaded the first 200 boxes onto the POD – we worked until 2:45 am!! I was so impressed by these young men…hard working, cheerful and rocking out to some good music with me all night long.

Loading and Packing until 2:45 am

Will & JP

Packing and loading goods

Several times I picked up a box or packed some items and I was overcome by emotion. One example was a box of 442 tooth brushes that I could tell were ordered through a dental association. I just thought about how having new tooth brushes would be a little blessing because it was just one more thing that these people would not need to purchase (or go without) but rather they could spend their limited resources on other needed items. This reminded me of a story that Missy told me about how one young man comes to the Malaybalay Saturday feedings each week to provide hair cuts to the children. Missy said that a haircut cost 14 pesos and in many cases the families cannot afford the extra 14 pesos for a haircut so the children just look scraggly most of the time. So this one small kind act blesses the children and their families so they can spend their limited resources on necessities.

Here is a picture of Gabriel and his cousin Prince after their haircuts….

Gabriel and Prince

Tang…someone dropped off 3 large containers of Tang (you can see them in the picture above next to the shoes). The Filipino kids just love Tang. I was watching the kids at one Malaybalay Saturday camp activity and feeding event and the kids found out there was Tang in the cooler and they went crazy over it…just watch this short video.

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