Hiking

Since we've been here we have done a lot of hiking! The sign on this mountain said it was 2 miles to the top but I know we hiked at least 14 miles and still didn't reach the top!…you can never trust those signs! 

Me and the boys made it about a mile and a half and we were dead!

And this is mom 

And zoomed in.… she it the little white speck

She didn't quite make it to the top cause her asthma kicked in

And naturally after our hard earned exercise we needed a gigantic slice of chocolate cake!

Winter in the desert

while we have been here it has been shocking to see how they decorate…like putting Santa hats on the top of cactuses! 

This is the tallest tree in the nation! It has a grand total of 6000 ornaments…just imagine putting those on 

We visited these gingerbread houses and you can't really tell but they are big enough that a 5or 6 year old could fit in 

As part of our Christmas present we went on a Segway tour of old town Scottsdale! If traveling to Phoenix I strongly recommend it! 

Christmas Eve!

Its not very often when you can sun bathe on Christmas Eve! I even got a tan line! For those of you freezing your buns off, I am truly sorry! 

Hot tubbing! 

Family friends of ours have a house in Phoenix and graciously allowed us to stay! This is the incredible view from their backyard! Although I do love my tan line, it just isn't the same without snow on Christmas! 

Phoenix!

This year for Christmas we all decided (or mostly I prodded) that we didn't need any gifts…so instead we are heading to Phoenix!  Both grandparents are there and my aunt! But I think the best part will be warm temperatures! Tonight in the great city of Omaha it is -3…and when our plane lands it will be a cozy 72! Ahhhh! It sounds heavenly!  

Twins

I don't think I ever shared this story... This story that has really changed my life and opened my eyes to impossible possibilities!

When in the Philippines, at one particular distribution there were so many children that we split the kids into two separate groups in two separate rooms. Even with separate areas there were about 300 kids per room. In my area we had the kids come up to get their box based on age group and at the end of the line were 2 twin girls. We got the first one through the line but ran out of boxes for the very last girl, so we told her to sit down and we ran over to the other area to get her another box. We gave it to her and the program proceeded without much thought. 

Later when we were walking around, I went over to the girls and the two twin girls were holding up pictures from two twins in America.....

Now take a minute and think of the journey this box went through..

1) the family packs the boxes and drops them of at the church

2) the boxes are picked up from the church along with many boxes from other churches to be delivered to the packing site

3) at the packing site thousand of boxes are thrown every which way with many people going through them and conveyor belts running wild

4) the boxes are shipped over seas to the different countries

5) the boxes spend weeks going through inspections in customs

6) the boxes arrive in the country at the national housing facility and are sorted by the team into all the different groups of boxes to go to different churches and schools

7) the boxes travel to the school or church and are separated out into the different age groups and gender

8) depending on how many kids, the boxes are separated again into smaller sections

.....I have truly witnessed a miracle! There is no possible way that this could have happened with out God! That the boxes even ended up in the same country is a miracle let alone the same school, but to have one girl make it through the line and not the other and then that there was even another distribution at the same school and to happen to grab the EXACT box?!?! 

The most important thing you can do is pray over your boxes. Pray about what to put in them, where they go, and that they make it to the right child! Miracles really do happen and they will with your help! So PACK BOXES!!!! I hope through this blog you have seen the need that I saw and been inspired as I have! The shoe box is such a simple way to fill such a big need! 

Collection week is next week which means there is still time!!! Fill some boxes and watch the miracles God has in store! 

Last homecoming!!

Today was the LAST homecoming!! Me and my 2 Hannah friends took the 2 German foreign exchange students! It was super fun! They'd never been to a homecoming before and we took them to Olive Garden! I will now be traveling to Germany to visit them :)

Change the World One Box At a Time

One of the things you may not know is that absolutely no one on the national team is paid. For every single person it is completely volunteer...most of them having families at home to support and a full time job. They have things happening in their lives like a wife with cancer, a child that passed away, and not enough money to keep a house. Yet through all their turmoil and troubles, they saw that the kids are the ones they should be there for. I believe that the devil will only seek to knock down what he finds threatening.... Therefor do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21).....So this is my challenge to you, give up a weeks worth of coffee, Krispy Kreme donuts or whatever your vice is, and pack double the amount of boxes that you did last year! With your help we can see a box in the hands of every child in need and spread the word of God!!

Philly

Today we got caught in the rain.... And by rain I mean downpour! 

And of course we couldn't go to Philly and not have a Philly cheesesteak! 

And to top off our last night of vacation, we stopped at 3 different places for frozen yogurt :)

How I love eating whatever you want since your on vacation!!!

Philadelphia

I can definitely say I like Philadelphia better than NYC! The people here are a bit nicer and its not as busy! We got to do some site seeing yesterday....

The liberty bell

Went to the printing press

Then went to this huge indoor mall type food court... I don't really know how to explain it but it was huge!! 

Sleep please

This morning we got up at 2am to be to the airport by 3, traveled the 4 hours to Tokyo, time traveled the 13 hours to JFK, spent 2 hours going through customs, met mom and dad at the airport and now we are on our way to Philadelphia. It has been a lot of butt time and I'm ready for a bed... Any bed! The flights both had so many movies there just wasn't enough time to sleep :) needless to say, I'm a bit tired!

Extras

Some of the things that happened or we did, I didn't get a chance to talk about so this is just kind of random things....

On one of the days they took us to US land, it was a cemetery of war veterans.

And I found the Nebraska seal!

You'll see in some of the pictures that like this boy in purple, they pose with their hands for pictures and we finally found out that this is called handsome pose :)

The Boy Scouts of the Philippines!

The living conditions here were very extreme in both ways.... On one side you would see something like this, and then on just the other side of the street would be a nice mall with well equipped houses. 

If we could give a box to every "home" like this, we could have a whole new population in Heaven! 

This is me and my roommate Mikayla in our complementary robes and slippers!!

The team was absolutely incredible and I really feel like I've made some lifelong friends :)

 Not to mention our spectacular leaders

Precious!

Today at the school we were at, out of 1500 kids only 200 received boxes. It is so sad to only be able to give to part of the children when all of them could really use it. 

My new friends!! :)

All of the kids prayed before they opened their box and told God what they really wanted to be in the box an this girl said she got all she ever wanted :) it practically broke my heart!

At our second school, out of 3000 kids only 150 received boxes. It would be tough to find kids in the states with such joy and appreciation but more than that, kids who really whole heartedly want to be a child of Jesus! 

These kids are so precious and it breaks my heart to know that all of them don't get a box. Think how much we could accomplish if every single person packed only 2 boxes?!! 

Help Needed!

Today we started out at a school of 6000 children but only 200 received boxes. They told us that these children were chosen based on how much help they needed....however it was amazing to see the kids not receiving a box that were lined along the gates and were still able to hear the message! 

The kids praying over their boxes 

I had talked to this boy when we first arrived and later when he opened his box he came and found me to show me his new shirt! It fit him perfectly and you could not believe the excitement!

This is my friend named Cinderella!! :) she received a sewing kit in her box!

After an awesome distribution we went shopping!! Then our international team had share time to talk about what's going on In the Philippines, how they decide where boxes go, the process of getting boxes, and the things we can do to help. The number one thing they said was that they really needed prayers! You may not ever get the opportunity to personally deliver a box but they could not do what they are doing here unless we do what we can by packing a box and I can assure you that it is changing lives! 

The team here said that their goal is to have one million boxes in the Philippines alone in one year and I think with your help we can do it! There are SOOO many kids that still need to be reached and the shoebox is such a simple way to bring a child to Christ!

Please keep the Philippino people and children in your prayers!!

Boarding School

After an early 515am wake up call we headed on our 2hour bus ride to a boarding school. As we arrived they had a whole band playing for us!

Also all the kids made these beautiful flower necklaces and they were all lines up to put them around our neck!

There were around 40 kids at this distribution and they had an entire program prepared for us....beginning with these dancers who had prepared 6 months for our arrival

We were told that these children all came from the streets. Some were abandoned by their parents and some families just couldn't afford rent. Some of the children with families are able to live at the boarding house with food, education, and shelter and their parents work at the boarding school in return for all of those things. They have mostly preschool children but it goes up through high school and they had one college student as well. We were able to listen to some of their testimonies and the children were so focused on God! It was really incredible to see!

Then in the afternoon another school came to the same area to receive boxes. There were about 300 in this group and all if the kids that had received boxes from the morning wanted to be the ones to hand out the boxes to the new group....it was probably the most precious thing I've ever seen!

This little girl told me how excited she was to have her very own angel with her all the time :)

Then at the closing, as if they hadn't already given us enough, we all received hand colored pictures with our very own notes attached!

By far my favorite day so far!!!