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When I was considering what I could possibly do for the Kingdom Assignment, I happened to speak with Ken and Sheila Cloaninger whose son Grant is a graduate of West Point Military Academy. As I spoke with the Cloaningers, I felt God was leading me to the answer—I wanted to show appreciation to the U.S. Military! Grant’s former West Point classmate, Officer Rob Davis, leads a platoon of soldiers in Iraq. The Cloaninger family and Officer Davis were able to provide me with a list of important names: 30 soldiers serving our country faithfully in Iraq. The soldiers gladly hand out gifts to the children in Iraq. My assignment would be to make gift boxes for all those soldiers as well as an additional box for each to give to a child in need.
Members of other Sunday School classes got involved. Over 20 families helped with the project. Ken Cloaninger involved the Mint Hill Rotary Club, which generated even more support and materials for the boxes. On November 4, just a few weeks after we began the project, sent out flyers, and collected the items and donations, we were ready to “stuff” all the boxes for our soldiers and the children. What a joy it was to fill these boxes with much needed items.
It took a truck to carry all the filled boxes, and over 4 hours to attach the customs forms and pre-addressed labels. As I stood in the post office, people kept asking, “Where are ALL those boxes going?” I was very proud to say they were from Philadelphia Presbyterian Church and the surrounding community.
In summary, the $100 that was given to me to enrich God’s Kingdom grew to an amazing $3000+ that showed God’s love to 30 soldiers and 30 Iraqi children. What a blessing to give, but I think a greater blessing was received in the giving. I was reminded of the danger our soldiers are facing everyday in Iraq when I learned that one of the soldiers, whose name I was given, lost her life before her box arrived.
We did receive thank you notes from some of the soldiers expressing their gratitude. Here are a few quotes from some of the letters we received:
“I feel like it’s Christmas.”
“Thank you for your support, thoughts, & prayers.”
“It’s wonderful that you are thinking of us.”
“We have too few comforts here & having support from home means the world.”
“We are so grateful that, even a world away, we are in your prayers.”
I want to thank all the people who graciously gave their support to this project. All the support and love shown during this project was confirmation to me that God’s light is present in His people.
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