4 Thursday October 4th

 

Good morning. I hope you have managed to pick up one of Mustard Seed Jersey’s Christmas shoebox appeal leaflets from a Parish Hall or Les Quennevais Sports Centre. 

 

Approximately three quarters of the Christmas shoeboxes we receive from members of the public are for children. We distribute most in schools, as we arrange for the shoeboxes to arrive in Romania before the School term ends in December. 

 

Of course it all depends on how many shoeboxes we receive .... I remember one memorable distribution a few years ago. We did not have enough shoeboxes to give to all the children in that village, but there were several exceptionally needy families so we went to their homes to give them Christmas shoeboxes.

 

Because the older children had received shoeboxes in the past they got very excited when they saw us. After talking with the parents and learning how the family were doing, we gave them the boxes. Then something quite extraordinary happened. The young girl realised her younger brother (the baby of the family) had been given a much smaller than she had received herself. Immediately she swapped her larger box with her brother.

 

We tried to suggest it would be better to leave him with the smaller box that was appropriate to his age, while hers (which happened to be much larger) had more appropriate contents for her. But she wanted to give the bigger box to her brother, because she thought it was better for him. We left really moved and challenged at the girl’s generosity. She had very little but she wanted her little brother to have the biggest and best box and took the smaller one for herself.

 

It was Jesus Christ who said “it is more blessed to give than to receive”. I hope this Christmas you will give and as you give generously you receive Gods blessing.

 

 

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