Its The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year!

It's that time of year again... (and yes, I know it's not Christmastime yet)

Laverne and Norma B. have opened up "Tommy's Hut"

And we, along with some other families & friends have been going to work.

For those of you who don't know, "Tommy's Hut" is a garage

that during the month of November gets turned into an 'Operation Christmas Child' Workshop.

Thousands of shoe boxes get filled.

OCC, is part of Franklin Graham's Samaritans Purse Org .

Specifically though, OCC, delivers shoe boxes full of small toys and candy to children in desperate situations, and most importantly, delivers the message of Jesus Christ.

Out of their love for these children, that they will probably never meet,

Laverne and Norma donate their own money to buy everything that goes into these thousands of boxes (the ones that come from Tommy's Hut) and ship them. They are such sweet people.

And their love for Jesus is displayed in everything they do.

My words do not do them justice.

They accept as much help as they can get with packing these boxes. And I mean PACK! Boxes get filled with toothbrushes, soap, school supplies, toys, jewelry, stuffed animals, coloring books, CANDY, and other stuff. Everyone stays busy!

And at the end of the assembly line to fill the boxes some one puts rubber bands around them to hold them shut. Sometimes they are so full that you have to practically sit on the boxes to get the bands around them. And then an age group get written on it. (So some 12 yr. old doesn't get a teething toy) :)

OCC, provides some fold able boxes and lids but other than that people can donate old shoe boxes and they get wrapped in colorful wrapping paper.

The other night some of us were folding boxes and decided to time ourselves.

4 of us folded 100 boxes in 8 minutes!

We also folded the lids that go to the boxes...

(no they don't reach all the way to the ceiling, but I liked the angle...)

We probably had at least 600 lids stacked anywhere we could fit them.

And as you can tell from the picture below...

We have NO fun whatsoever while working. :)

There are more people that come and help out that just the ones in the picture, but they weren't brave enough to try on the hats. Maybe someday... :)