Picking Up Boxes from many locations

Thanks to PYOC and all the folks that follow Buddy's leading over there for the hard work you put into those youth, we appreciate you greatly. The youth really stepped up and did an excellent job filling there "Boxes of Love".
Thanks to Larissa Traquair for organizing the Protestant Women of the Chapel in their preparing "Boxes of Love" for Urawa Single Mom Shelter. We will go to Urawa on Sat the 20th. Sorry, this is a private facility and noone can join us. Please do pray for these single mom's and their children. Also PWOC prepared many extra boxes for other children that come our way, which by the way that is exactly what is happening. We will now be serving the children of handicapped adults in Urasoe City on Friday night and we needed some "Boxes of Love" for them, and waalaa, that is how good God is all the time.

Thanks to Crystal Pitcher for being the coordinator for Protestant Youth of the Chapel on Kadena and all those who helped you as well. The youth really pulled together and got the job done for all the handicapped kids at Wai - after school program for handicapped kids in Okinawa City. We will go there on Dec 22 to distribute to them and let them know that we care a great deal about them. Anyone can join us on this distribution. Be looking for information on this location to come ASAP.

Tomo is trying to convince Crystal to rescue him from the van before he gets overtaken by all the gifts.

Rika picked up from Keystone Church yesterday. Thanks Stacy Gingrich for being the coordinator for gathering "Boxes of Love" for Urawa as well and for providing extra ones too. What a blessing. Also, Rika picked up from Yomitan International Church today from Lisa Lekse. Thanks so much Lisa for being the coordinator in collecting "Boxes of Love" for Ohana Handicapped Day Care. We will join with Awase Baptist Church on Sat the 13th and give the children of Ohana their gifts from 2-4. Anyone can join this event. If you want to just participate in the giving then join us around 3:15 at Awase Baptist. Call me for directions.

THANK YOU EVERYONE for your part in providing "Boxes of Love" to these children on island in need of our love and support. I appreciate each and everyone of you for joining us in the ministry.

USO Shopping Trip

Tomo and Andy had way to much fun on our shopping trip.
One again this year the USO treated us to a shopping trip to the Exchange to buy gifts for Awase, Nago and Naha Developmental Centers. One location specifically asked for a Christmas Tree and all the trimmings. Another asked for a keyboard among such gifts as therapy equipment, crayons, markers and pencil's to add to there supplies. Thank you so much Brian for the USO's generous donations this year and for individual donations as well. Tomo literally shopped til he dropped on Andy's shoulder.

Urasoe City Handicapped Children's Christmas Party

I know what your thinking.........No your not seeing double............there are two Santa's. Thanks Danny and Michael for going way out of your comfort zone on a moments notice and bringing great joy to these special children.
We needed all the help we could get to unload 283 gifts for these very special children in Urasoe City.
We saw one of Tomo's girlfriends he met at "Smile Up" Down Syndrome Support Group. What a special little girl. She was so happy with her Princess Legos.
This little guy was ready to get home and play with his truck.

This two are buddies and wanted to have the same gifts. So "Light Bright" it is.
We had so many toys we were loading them on stretchers to get them inside.
Meet Kento and his mom. They remembered us from last year as we gave him a gift with a watch, cologne and new socks. He was so proud to wear his cologne to school the next day and have everyone enjoy how good he smelt. This year he chose a robot. He's so smart he even speaks a little english.
There were so many children and they were so excited to receive the gifts.
Amanda, Meghan and Kenny were just a few that joined us in distributing. Thanks to everyone for such wonderful singing of "Silent Night" that proclaimed the gospel of Jesus Christ to these special people.
While we were distributing at Urasoe City, Rika was at a "Foster Children" support group Christmas Party passing out about 50 gifts. Thanks everyone for making Christmas a special time and a more meaningful time for many on Saturday. Thanks to the Toys for Tots organization for their generous donation of toys and to OCHEA Okinawa Christian Home Educators Association, EDIS Educational Developmental Intervention Services, Central Baptist Church and the Harbor Ministry for their many "Boxes of Love" they prepared for these very special children.

The 2008 Christmas Season has begun

We have kicked off to a great start for the 2008 "Box of Love" outreach ministry. First of all I want to give a great big THANK YOU to all our supporters, because without you this would not be happening.
THANKS TO YOU: Camp Foster Chapel, Central Baptist Church, EDIS, The Harbor Community, Kadena Protestant Women of the Chapel, Kadena Protestant Youth, Keystone Church, Koza Baptist Church, Okinawa Christian School International, Toys for Tots, USO, Yomitan International Church and many individual supporters. Not only have you all contributed the gifts or money, you have done it with such a loving heart and that has been a joy to be a part of and to witness first hand.
Rika and Kimie are sorting through the first wave of boxes from OCHEA, EDIS, Koza and Central Baptist Churches. The boxes have been EXACTLY what we had hoped and prayed for. Way to go all of you who filled a "Box of Love". We are so excited for the kids who will receive them. Our "base camp" if you will, is at Koza Baptist this year. Last year we filled my house up to the ceiling with boxes and that was serving 600 children. This year our goal is to serve 800+. Not only would that amount not fit in my house, we are in the middle of packing up ourselves and moving a few doors down to a new house, so imagine our trying to figure out how that was going to take place. God is always faithful in providing for our needs. Koza Baptist was so gracious in allowing us to work out of there and allow folks to see this huge blessing in action as well.
Toys for Tots were once again very gracious to us in giving us 420 toys for us to distribute to 3 different locations. We enjoyed spending a few hours in their warehouse shopping for those 420 kids from their very well organized shelves of donated toys. So...if you have ever given a toy to the Toys for Tots, after it leaves the box you put it in, it goes to a warehouse and is sorted and placed on a shelf, then folks like us go in and shop for specific children, then go and distribute. If you'd like to see where these toys from Toys for Tots are going you can join us when we go to Urasoe and Ginowan City's in the next few weeks.
Thanks to all the folks at the Harbor for their generous donations and for helping us unload the Toys for Tots van.
The tree is full, the closet behind the tree is full, the floor is full and the prayer closet is full of TOYS. YIPPEE!!!
First distribution to some children who loved Renee's crocheted caps, thanks Renee. These kids were so happy to open their gifts and see what all was in them. One little guy loved his Thomas the Train very well.

Again, here are a few of the kids happy to pose for a picture. Thank you Koza Baptist for serving this facilty a "Box of Love".
Next stop will be Urasoe City on Saturday the 6th. Meet at Koza @1:30 to help transport toys and join us in fellowship with the handicapped kids of Urasoe City.
Thanks again!

First of Many places and smiling faces........

The children at Awase Developmental Center made us this card as a THANK YOU for coming.

We started our Box of Love Journey at the Awase Developmental Center serving them with much needed learning toys and exercise equipment for therapies. Also giving them some CD players as the children love to listen to music. We were able to encourage the staff with fruit baskets too. We were not able to take any pictures of the children for privacy reasons, but here we all are with "Glean Piece", a great couple of guys hip hopping and bopping on Okinawa. Believe us when we say that they were very happy to receive the gifts and enjoy Alex and Quali, Elizabeth's girls. For those of you who haven't met them, they are dogs, they don't know that, but they look like it for sure.

Boxes, Boxes and more for the "Box of Love" ministry

We shopped and shopped and shopped...........................................................................

And the USO paid and paid and paid...................Thanks so much USO..........................

Zoe and Abby at the Harbor so excited about giving all these "Boxes of Love". They helped us load the van.

Welcome to the "Box of Love" blog. I want to begin by THANKING everyone who served with this ministry for the 2007 Christmas season. We were able to serve over 600 children with a "Box of Love" which included 15 locations. We began with the idea of one location of 60 children. God is faithful to His children. We included a note in each box acknowledging where the gifts came from. Here is what it said:

"Ai no Kesshin is a volunteer organization serving the women and children of Okinawa and Japan. These gifts have been provided for you by Ai no Kesshin and many others who want to serve you as well. Thanks to all our supporters in donating to the "Box of Love" ministry. They are : Camp Foster Chapel, EDIS, The Harbor Community, Kadena Protestant Women of the Chapel, Kadena Protestant Youth, Keystone Church, Koza Baptist Church, Okinawa Christian School International, Toys for Tots, USO and Yomitan International Church. As Christians we celebrate Christmas by honoring the birth of Jesus Christ. Jesus was given to us as the greatest gift of all time. We want you to have these gifts to show our love to you and to share with you the love of Jesus.As the a large amount of boxes began to be delivered, we were continually amazed how we began to locate more children. It seemed as if God was matching the need.

Rika, Junko and Kimie faithfully making sure each box had plenty of supplies to meet the needs of each child.

Shoko was faithful to help us take care of our own children as we were busy with the boxes.

Kayoko working so hard to not get overwhelmed by the number of boxes to sort through.

This sorting and counting lasted for two weeks. My house truely turned into a "TOY STORE".

Thanks to so many that helped collect boxes for us. I know I don't have everyone pictured, sorry about that.

Thanks PWOC of Kadena.

Thanks Kadena Youth.

Thanks to OCSI.

Thanks to Koza Baptist Church.

Thanks to the Marine Corps, Toys for Tots. And Thank You Bethany and Juda for moving out of your bedroom to make room for so many toys.

Again, Thanks Toys for Tots.

Again, Thanks Toys for Tots.

Loading up to make a delivery.

Thanks to so many volunteers who helped us delivery all these 600 gifts.

Tomoyuki tried really hard to be a Reindeer, to no avail, he couldn't even keep his antlers on.

So, we used Alexandria and Quali to help us make deliveries.

The boxes kept coming, and coming, and coming, til we could hardly move in our house. We are so very thankful for all of you who blessed so many children on the island with a "Box of Love". We obviously could not have done it without you.

I will continue to work on getting pictures posted of the children receiving the boxes with their smiling faces. I want to THANK each of you for all your generous donations. Please pass this onto those who helped you.