Christmas Box Outreach: The Challenge

I did something this year I have wanted to do for a very long time. Just around the bend in our own neighborhood lies a shack-home community. Our sweet babysitter, a refugee from Iraq who has now been relocated to America, lived down there. Over the years, this poverty-stricken community has evolved to include refugees from all over. Their livelihood is to go about our neighborhood each night, dig through the trash for anything that can be recycled, and sell it to the recycling companies. It's a hard, dirty job. On any given night, young kids are in trash bins, fighting the wild dogs for what is there. Somehow I wanted to reach out to this community and let them know that someone (Someone) cares for them.

So, I proposed an idea to my middle school Bible class. Earn 20TL ($10) somehow...forego a Christmas present, do an extra chore, fast for a meal. Buy some basic necessities for a family, wrap your gifts into a Christmas box, and deliver it with me on our field trip.

The kids were very excited. They tackled the assignment whole-heartedly. I don't think I've ever had a cleaner car or a more organized, clean house. They earned their money and went to spend it.

Though Firstborn is not in my class, she asked to join us that day, and I let her.

Blankets, food, socks, hats, candy. It all went into a box for someone we had not yet met.

My students began asking if they could do more than one box. Teachers and other students asked if they might send a few things. Soon, my class of 20 had over 35 boxes to deliver.

Next: photos from our delivery day