Port Angeles, WA
Shoe Box Blessings
by Cathly Benzler, Ministry Staff
This past Christmas our ministry decided to do an outreach at the Lower Elwha reservation called “Shoebox Blessings.” We asked people to take shoeboxes, fill them with a warm hat, mittens, socks, and an age appropriate toy. People could fill the rest of the box however they felt led. The box was then wrapped and tagged with age and gender. We geared this for the children and the elders. Many people and congregations joined to help us with this effort. The purpose was to give each child and elder in need a gift for Christmas.
It was exciting as the boxes began to arrive and we started the task of separating the boxes into age groups and gender. We had filled one whole room in our house with wrapped shoeboxes that measured from the floor and halfway up the wall. Finally, there was hardly a pathway left to walk on. As we surveyed the array of boxes, it touched our hearts so deeply to see how God’s people jumped in and partnered with us in making Christmas a little more joyful for those in need and that otherwise might not have anything at this time of year. Tom & I had no idea what was in the boxes, so this also added to our excitement. We knew that during the Christmas season many of our people are alone and start feeling depressed and cut off from the community especially if there isn’t family close to them. We have also experienced a lot of deaths this year in the community and people were grieving the losses of spouses and loved ones. There had been a lot of abandonment from spouses and children by a parent as well. We knew this would be a good way to build relationships with people.
The weekend before Christmas we took a couple of our native elders to help us deliver the shoeboxes. They knew where everyone lived and we wanted to make sure the elders and the children of families in the most need got first priority in receiving a gift. They took us to homes in the community that were so isolated we didn’t even know they existed. We had no agenda planned other than to deliver all the shoeboxes. We wanted God to be in control. The fun part was watching how God worked through this effort.
On the Friday before Christmas, we handed out 60 boxes. On that Saturday, we handed out more than 100 boxes. People asked us if we would pray for them. People were amazed that they were being remembered and that someone would come to their house to gift them.
We went to the home of a young girl with a new baby that was living alone and had need of everything and anything. Here she was on her own struggling to raise her baby. As we looked around the room we took note as to some of the things she was in need of. My heart ached for this girl. I wanted to jump in and see where she stood spiritually, but for some reason I knew God wanted me to wait and follow His lead. So, we went home and gathered some things that we knew she needed and returned the next day. At first I was disappointed because the girl had gone into town, but her Mother was there watching the baby. Her Mother greeted us and said she was so happy that we came back because her daughter was looking all over trying to find out who we were. She said her daughter was so touched the day before that she wanted to start going to church. Her Mother continued to tell us that after we left the day before, her daughter told her she couldn’t believe that anyone she didn’t know would care enough to come and bring her and her baby gifts. This girl had become an atheist because nothing spiritual had ever made sense to her. She said that when we came to visit her, she felt God for the first time. Now a relationship is being built and we are able to share the Gospel with her. Sometimes it just takes following God’s lead to get things accomplished, instead of always wanting to take out our own toolbox and fix everything and everyone the way we think it should be done.
As a result of many people participating with us in the “Shoebox Blessings” we handed out over 200 boxes to the Elwha reservation, 28 to the Makah in Neah Bay and 15 to the Jamestown S’Klallam. In addition, one of the churches that participated decided that next year they would do this outreach to a reservation that is close to their town. Something so simple can have a huge impact on the lives of people.
Seeing the spiritual needs that are going unmet has given us a broader vision to reach into this Native community and bring the good news of forgiveness, hope and life in Jesus Christ.