Morning Thought Wednesday Jan 17th
Multumesc
Mersi .
We heard those words countless times during the one day when we gave out
Christmas shoeboxes for Mustard Seed Jersey As you will have guessed that’s
Romanian for Thank you.
Much of the shoebox distribution happens in the schools. Often the
teachers have the children make Christmas cards to give to us when we arrive.
Always there is at least one song that the children sing for us. Usually they
will include a Christmas carol. Before the boxes are brought in the visitors
from Jersey are asked to tell them where we’re from and why we’ve brought the
Shoeboxes to them.
Then the shoeboxes are brought in in the cardboard boxes and we cut the
tape to take out the precious gifts. Sometimes the children are lined up
according to ages or else the children are told to sit at their table quietly.
They do sit amazingly quietly and wait while we hand out the Shoeboxes. You can
see the children gaze at you, following you with their eyes and trying to work
out which box will be theirs. Then when they receive their box they hold it
tight.
Multumesc & Mersi Sometimes especially if it’s the first time they’ve
had a shoebox they can’t get the words out but their eyes and the smile says
thank you more loudly than many words.
To us in the richer west a Christmas shoebox is a comparatively small
thing – but to the beneficiary it is huge, amazingly important, probably the
only gift. I believe as well as the contents it’s the love and prayer and care
that makes each box so very special to each recipient.
Multumesc Thank you.