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.