Today we went Christmas shopping at Wall-Mart! What made it a SPECIAL EVENT is it took place on September 19th and it was part of our house church experience, Worship then Wall-Mart!

17 of us went shopping for the orphaned and abandoned children at Arms of Love, children’s homes in the Philippians. We were buying for 50 kids ranging in age from 3 to 21 years of age.

There were four of us picking out gifts for the old teenage boys. Our shopping team was made up of two teenage guys and two adult men. Jokes about our shopping skills and tastes dominated our conversations but we were still able to complete our task and pulled up to the checkout register ahead of the teenage girls shopping team (a small but noted victory).

When all the charts were emptied from the four shopping teams the total was under our budgeted amount of $1,500, with wrapping and shipping still to be done.

The first attempt, last year, to send Christmas presents to the Arms of Love kids in the Philippians did not account for the delay in shipping the gifts, so they arrived in February rather than December. This year the group was determined to complete the task on time for Christmas.

Other Wall-Mart shoppers noticed we were shopping in teams and picked up on our conversations. Some asked what we were doing. Four guys filling up one shopping chart with 12 part of different size shoes does create some curiosity, puzzled looks and one or two inquiries. The facial expressions of surprise were priceless when one of us would explain we were buying gifts for orphans in the Philippians. Every shopper was encouraging and some even helped the team with finding the right size items.

It was a good day in the Kingdom! God was honored as we thoughtfully did something to recognize apart of our spiritual family half way around the world. Besides, giving, in the end, is always better than getting!

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