New Time...Same Place...Welcome Back Friends

We are changing the starting time of our small group. This will enable some friends to come back and join us. Beginning this week, we will start at 6:00 pm and finish by 8:00.

Here's the schedule for December:

Dec 1st and 8th:  Our goal is to finish up our current study over the next two weeks.
Dec. 15th:  Christmas Pot Luck Dinner at Sally's.  Please let her know what you will be bringing.
Dec. 22nd and 29th:  No small group meeting.  Enjoy the holidays with the family.

We will see you Tuesday at 6 pm!!!

Until then we remain...
In Line With The Word

Thanks

I'd like to  introduce you to a great site in support of our troops called Let's Say Thanks. It's a quick and simple way to send as many cards as you'd like to our troops to express your appreciation.

Check it out at http://www.letssaythanks.com/  and follow the 3 Easy steps. It really is very easy!

1.Select all of the postcards or click 'view all designs' When you put your cursor on a picture, you'll view an enlarged version and name and age of the child who designed the card.
2.Personalize by entering your message( multiple choices given to chose from) ,fill in name and hometown.
3.Hit send

You can  read some of the messages sent to our military by clicking on "Messages of the Week'.
You can click on 'From the troops ' to read what they have to say about receiving cards from back home.
There is even a 'photo gallery'.  Browse! Enjoy!

Delivery Day

Well delivery day has arrived! Honestly, I am so tired that I didn't think that it would ever come and in other ways it arrived so fast. It is worth all of the time and energy expended. I just imagine the reaction of the children as they wait to receive their boxes and what their reaction is as they open it and go through their gifts. The best gift of all of course is that they learn all about Jesus and what He has given to all who accept Him as Lord and Savior. It's a remarkable gift!

Our first step was to take a final count because more boxes were brought in on Family Night Wednesday.

Then we began loading the trailer for the ride to the next stop on their journey. Jay and Charlie got them loaded and secured in no time at all.

 

 

We enjoyed a cool fall day, with a brisk occasional breeze and raw temperatures. It was a reminder that Winter and Christmas will be arriving very soon. 

Check out Debbie Thrush giving us a 'thumbs up'! She is the coordinator for OCC at the Life Care Center that we use as our drop off point. She and her crew made it so easy. Who is that guy with the ball cap ? Why it's our very own Jay who has been invaluable help! Thanks Jay.

Our FINAL count (someone please tell Christian in PA) is 441 boxes!

From Sally and all of the In Line With The Word team!

Packing Day

Tuesday evening our Home Team gathered at church to check and pack our shoe boxes for delivery.
Now anyone who knows our team, knows that we never meet without having something to eat and Tuesday was no exception. We started our evening together with supper and enjoyed some delicious pizza, and salad.

Since ESL was holding classes down stairs in and around Fellowship Hall and our kitchen, we set up our supper in the foyer. We took time to get caught up with Kim, since her recent  return from a reunion in Hawaii with her son Doug who just returned from Afghanistan. It was great having her back home with us.

 

After enjoying some time together, it was time to get to work checking each shoe box, packing them and getting a final count.

Kim and Mindy got to work filling new 'Adopted' boxes. Since we have church members who can't or don't shop, they give me the money and I shop for them! This works very well!

Jay enjoyed checking shoe boxes and finding some of the cute little friends that will make some child very, very happy.

Laurie and Brian are quite a team. Laurie worked with Jay and me in checking boxes while Brian packed them into cases and numbered the boxes.

 Charlie even got into the action. He's versatile and helped where ever needed.

 It took a while but eventually we began to see the pile dwindle a bit while the cases of boxes began to stack up out in the hallway.

After an hour or so, I called for a dessert break. Our backs were hurting and our sweet tooth wanted some of Mindy's famous munchies.

Ahh! No Laurie isn't really sleeping but this project is far more physical then you might think and we all enjoyed a bit of a breather.

We did get back to work and before we knew it we were down to the last few boxes. Brian did a great job stacking the cases in the hall and taking our count.

Drum roll please! (We sure hope that our young friend Christian in PA is checking in here) We left Tuesday evening with 428 boxes packed and ready to go. That  marks a NEW record for us!

Watch for our next posting and follow our Delivery and FINAL count!

Dedication Sunday

It's been a few short weeks since we launched this years OCC missions project and we're approaching the home stretch. Tomorrow is delivery day , so you'll want to check back for our final count and a few photos sharing our delivery to our drop off location, Life Care of Nashoba Valley.

Let's take a look back to this time one week ago. It started with a dozen or so boxes arriving.

Little by little the stack of boxes started to grow.

Before you know it the platform in the sanctuary was stacked high with brightly wrapped shoeboxes.

 This is how things looked as the first people arrived for Sunday Services. Then the fun began as we watched the pile grow, grow and grow some more.

 

Young Ella took pity on me and offered to be my helper and she did a great job. When we were finished, she gave us both a 'thumbs up' for a job well done.

 

Pastor Mark, our Senior Pastor invited all of the children 12 years old and under to come up front and to lay hands on the boxes as we prayed.

It was wonderful seeing how many children came up front, some little ones with their parents to guide them, as we all prayed in agreement for the children whose lives would be changed forever when they learned about Jesus , through the gift of a simple shoebox.

As second service started the pile had grown up to the top of our grand piano. They were stacked so high, we could barely see Mrs. Terry behind all of the boxes.

To be continued.....