Empty Boxes

I hit the ground running last Sunday.  My plane touched down on Sunday afternoon and a few hours later I was wrapping empty boxes with wrapping paper. 

 

 

I didn't speak the language of most of the people in the room but I could wrap and tape without words. 

 

We listened to Christian worship music and wrapped boxes and my heart was content. 

 

 

 

 

Empty boxes for orphans. 

 

Empty boxes placed under an Angel Tree at the nearby mall. 

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Empty boxes to give people here the privilege - the opportunity - to give.  Take a box.  Fill it up.  Bless an orphan.

 

It was a new thing.

 

Would anyone take a box?  Fill it?

 

They wrapped 60 boxes. 

 

For 60 orphans.

 

In ONE orphanage.

 

They planned on standing at the tree each night.

 

Hoping and praying that the 60 boxes would be filled.

 

Maybe if they stood night after night until Christmas.

 

 

Maybe they could get 60 filled.

 

It was such a big number.

 

The people here so poor. 

 

60 boxes.

 

 

 

 

All the boxes were taken in the first few days.

 

Every single one FILLED.

 

Shock and awe.

 

 

 

They added another orphanage.

 

Wrapped more boxes.

 

They were filled too.

 

Another orphanage.

 

More boxes.

 

250 filled by the time I got there on that Sunday night.

 

We were wrapping more.

 

 

Empty boxes for hundreds and hundreds of orphans.

 

Each empty box wrapped with love.  Care. 

 

 

 Each box representing a child in need.

 

Jet lag.

 

Who cared.

 

Wrapping boxes on my first night here was the sweetest way to begin this journey.