As many of you know, Steve & I travel to El Salvador several times a year to work with SHIP (Shelter the Homeless International Projects). In fact, we’re on one of those family mission trips right now.
If you’re reading this, would you nominate SHIP to win a percentage of the day’s profits. It doesn’t cost money & takes less than a minute.
- Click here to get to the nomination page.
https://www.facebook.com/BoneheadsCollegeStation/posts/859220514140609 - Add a comment that says, “Shelter the Homeless International Projects aka SHIP”. Just copy/paste in comments.
That’s it. If we get the most nominations (comments), we will use the proceeds to rebuild this family’s home during our spring break trip.
A special thanks to Boneheads College Station for this awesome opportunity.
I’m very excited about celebrating Christmas in El Salvador with our SHIP friends. On Saturday, we cooked dinner for the neighborhood and hosted a Christmas party.
Our friends at Oak Hills Church in Edmond, Oklahoma donated gifts for all the kids in the neighborhood & orphanage. Another SHIP friend, Terre Coday Boyer, made stockings for all the kids. So, each child that we support in school received a gift bag & stocking of fruit.
On Saturday morning, we wanted the kids to learn that it’s not all about “getting” gifts, but more about “giving” gifts. Since they don’t have money to buy gifts for each other, we had some of them make gift bags for the fruit. Some decorated bags. Others stuffed bags with oranges & apples. Finally, stockings were stuffed with fruit.
The gift bags are for the adults at the Christmas party, while each child receives a stocking of fruit. This activity may seem simple to Americans, but it is a reminder that we need to serve & give to others.
After discussing the reason we celebrate Christmas – God sent Jesus as a gift to man, to save us from our sins – we gave gifts to the kids. Ted Nombrana is a member of the Edmond church, so he helped pass out the gifts. It was a special time of seeing the kids faces light up.
On Sunday, we repeated the Christmas party with the orphanage.
At the end of each party, Santa & his elves passed out stockings to the kids & bags to the adults.
It’s amazing how excited they are to receive fruit. We often take food for granted, but they don’t. On Sunday morning we took gifts to 3 girls whose home we rebuilt last summer. When one of the girls saw the fruit, she immediately began eating an apple. She was also very proud of her new flip-flops.
What a joy it is to give special gifts to kids who don’t have much. Many words of “gracias” and “muchas gracias” were heard at the parties & at church.
Thanks to all of you who pray for Steve & I, as we work with SHIP to spread the Gospel in El Salvador.
NOTE:.
.Question:
How do you encourage giving over getting? You can leave a comment by clicking here.
