For me, Operation Christmas Child seems like its been around forever.

That's probably because the idea of OCC started when I was in 1st grade. In 1990 the Romanian Revolution had just occurred, the Cold war was still going on, and the Iron Curtain had yet to come down. During this time, {October '90} a couple in Wales, Dave and Jill Cooke were watching a broadcast about an orphanages in Romania that were holding thousands of children, with an estimated 3,000 infected with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. They were broken by the footage and needed to know how they could help the children living in this war torn country in unfathomable living conditions everyday.

Knowing there was nothing a single couple from Wales could do to stop the war they decided to offer something they did have, the simple {yet profound} gift of Love. They ended up filling 9 trucks with medical supplies, food, clothing, and other Christmas gifts for the orphans of Romania. This simple act was the beginning of the largest children's Christmas program.

Just three years later, Franklin Graham, president of  Samaritan's Purse, adopted Operation Christmas Child. In the new book, Operation Christmas Child: A Story of Simple Gifts, Franklin Graham shares about the beginnings of OCC:

Shortly before Thanksgiving his secretary came into his office and said, “Do you remember that man from Britain that called you back in the summer asking for shoeboxes? He’s on the phone asking when you’ll be sending them—he’s leaving for Bosnia soon,”... After speaking with the man on the phone, Mr. Graham having forgotten about the need and was way behind on accomplishing such a project, called the senior pastor at Calvary Church in Charlotte, NC. When presented with the opportunity and the pastor offered to help however he could.

The request? “Get a shoebox and fill it with some little toys for kids—maybe some toothpaste and a toothbrush, a hair brush, and sock,” Graham suggested. “Take it to the pulpit on Sunday and show your congregation. Ask if they will help us collect shoebox gifts for the kids in Bosnia. And by the way, tell them to put a note inside with their picture so the child will know who the box is from—maybe some of the kids will write back.”

He also passed on the request to their executive director in Canada to see what kind of response you can get from a church up there and quickly forgot about the project again until after Thanksgiving when he got a return call from North Carolina.

In a surprisingly humorous conversation, Graham learned that not only had the NC church been able to collect a few hundred boxes in only two weeks, but they had received about eleven Thousand boxes that were now taking up space in their gym, foyer, and Sunday school rooms.

That's just where it started. {Numbers 23:23} Now the operation is run by thousands of families collecting gifts, numerous churches collect boxes all over the states, and multiple packing warehouses full of volunteers assuring the safety and appropriateness of the items in each box, adding a gospel pamphlet, and praying over EVERY box before sending out to other countries.

***Over the last 20 years, more than 61 million shoe boxes have been delivered
to more than 135 countries for children in need.***

"But it all started with:

One phone call
One request
One shoebox
One church
And one message about the Christmas Child
For one heart at a time
We pray that the heartbeat of the Gospel will stir the hearts of hundreds of millions more."

This just goes to show, finding where God is at work and joining Him rather than conjuring up our own grand schemes is much more fun and productive for His kingdom. Packing tiny shoe boxes with insignificant gifts would have never been thought to be an extremely beneficial idea long term. Something more grandiose is usually what we would gravitate toward. But no, God desires you to seek Him and where He wants to work and be glorified. When we are able to humble ourselves and chase after Him in the seemingly small things to be a part of something MUCH bigger than ourselves. So Cool!

The rest of this week, I plan to let YOU know how to be apart of something Much bigger than yourself. How to be apart of where God is already working. YOU can join this journey of sharing one profound truth that changes one life at a time.

Sooooo, my girls still wear diapers to bed.

We have been offering incentives {Halloween candy} if the girls {5 & 3.5} keep their diaper dry all night and if they do this 3 nights in a row, we'll let them Try wearing panties to bed. I mean really, in a life with lots of littles, some "milestones" like a mamma/daddy changing everyone's sheets in the middle of the night just aren't worth it. It'll come.

The incentives have been working!!!! 😀 Both girls have kept them dry and receiving candy in the morning {Before Breakfast- insert shock and awe or discussed with my parenting}. Neither have made it 3 nights in a Row yet but are doing great.

Tonight, Mags let us in on how they've accomplished this:

• After we tuck them in to bed {diapered}, they get up and get new diapers out of the drawer.
• They then make these new diapers into "pull-ups" {forming them & attaching the tabs}.
• Then putting them on over the ones we already put on them.
• In the mornings, they throw away the wet ones and bring the dry ones in exchange for Candy.

GENIUS!!!!

I'm pretty sure they helped even their little brother {2.5} hose us one morning. So thoughtful, they knew he desperately wanted chocolate as well.

#parentingfail #outsmarted #raisinghonestkids

The outcome?

1. No one got beat because they told the truth.
2. In an attempt to buy less diapers, we've now been using double the diapers for nearly a week now.
3. We have no candy for trick-or-treaters {not all the fault of the lil geniuses}

In pregnancy, no one talks about the ugly stuff. Well...except for Jenny McCarthy.

You know, the stuff that makes you feel like you are the only "glowing pregnant" women out there who feels nasty & think something is wrong with how you're doing it?

• Oily skin.
• Swollen feet.
• Extra mucus in y9our face.
• The need for your husbands anti-monkey butt powder
• Hemorrhoids that make you dance in your seat like a toddler during an extra long sermon
• Hair. Not just the extra locks on your head that many have been dreaming of but Hair...everywhere
• The belly button that needs a band-aid to hide its new unattractive outty status but some days that doesn't even help
• Insentient sweat. Man sweat. Soak your shirt not just under the arms but under the boobs, on the back and oh, your pants- crotch
• "Discharge" Wait, I thought this glorious time of pregnancy was free of the evil "period". Maybe...but there's other stuff that apparently lives in there
• Gas. Yeah, tooting in your sleep. Crop dusting the stranger in Wal-Mart who just told you how adorably pregnant you are. Clearing out a gas station with the stench from...
• Constipation. Then there's the other end of that...upset tummy" because you dared to attempt the Mexican food
• Stretching. Not just the marks to come but the constant feeling of being a balloon a small child is trying to overfill with air just to hear it pop.
• Panting like an oversize smoker who needs an inhaler all because you walked to the kitchen for water {lets be honest- Dr Pepper}
• Pimples. Not just on your face. Maybe they should just be called growths...Itchy arm pits.
• Mood swings that are so bizarre to the naked eye but for real to you who are living it
• Terrible circulation
• Dried-out skin

Now that maybe you feel more "normal" about your less-than-glamorous process of growing a human, I'm sure some of you sweethearts are in complete shock that I typed out those truths. Well, somebody needs to say it. As long as we sit around thinking we're the only pregnant person out there dealing with the less-than-desirable aspects the longer we hide, suffer, and feel ashamed.

Here's the kicker. These nasty pregnancy symptoms? They're exactly like SIN. That adorable perfect Christian mom you are always admiring? She deals with her own symptoms such as "discharge", hair, and gas that are her secret sins. Maybe that seemingly perfect role model is the face you're attempting to preserve. As long as you're not confessing the "less than ideal" in your life, the longer you are living with that hidden fear and shame.

That's exactly where satan wants us. In the dark. Living with a secret we think will end us. In that place, we can't be healed if possible. We can't be comforted. We can't be released from or feelings of inadequacy, failure, and basic disgusting feeling.

There is freedom in confession.

What secret symptoms are you hiding that need to be voiced? What is satan holding over your head keeping you in bondage? What fear are you holding on to worrying about the results of...telling someone?

Confess your sin to one another. {James 5:16} Shout your faults from the roof tops. God will be glorified all the more. 2 Corinthians 12:9