In the shoebox community, November is a crazy month. Crazy may be an understatement but nonetheless it’s very, very busy. You ask why? November 15th through November 22nd is national collection week. This is when all of the shoeboxes from the Beckley/Raleigh County area come back into the church to be counted, put in a larger carton and start their long journey to reach a child halfway around the world. What I need from you first of all is your prayers that this collection week goes smoothly. It always has some rough times but with your prayers I’m sure we will get through it.
November is the month where I usually ask for monetary contributions to cover the shipping costs for the 100 boxes that we will be packing but fortunately through donations throughout the year our shipping costs have already been covered. But that’s not to say that we can’t start working on next years costs which I will only be glad to accept. If you want to write a check, just be sure to put shoeboxes in the memo line and that will assure that it gets to the correct place.
We will probably have a smaller collection this year but that’s good news because Samaritans Purse has opened a new collection center in Fayette County and one in Wyoming County. This will not only encourage more people in those areas to donate but will lessen the tremendous load that we get here every year. So it’s a good thing if we have less but that doesn’t mean you still can’t help. You can either make a box and bring it to the church or you can create a box on line which doesn’t involve any in person shopping. It’s all done on line. If you want more info on that, just give me a call and I’ll walk you through it.
I want to thank you all for your prayers, donations throughout the year both items donated and the contributions you’ve made. This year makes our 20th year officially being a collection center and it’s been great to see how this ministry has changed throughout the years. Please continue to pray as we enter this busy time that God moves these shoeboxes to where they need to be. God bless you !!!