Went to work for OCC

[Dragonslayer]

Being basically a motorcycle forum, I bet you thought Orange County Chopper by the OCC in the thread title. That's not really the case. I did manage to land a temporary gig for a few weeks during the Christmas season for a program called OCC. I am not however, working for the dastardly Paul Tuetal Sr. infamous abuser (of Paulie Jr. and Mickey) on the Orange County Chopper motorcycle build reality show.

 

Instead, the OCC I'm talking about is a program called Operation Christmas Child. This OCC is part of the Billy and Franklin Graham outreach ministry Samaritan's Purse. This OCC is about collecting shoe boxes of toys (this year 8 million plus) to send to impoverished children in India, Pakistan and the Ukraine along with a message about " The Greatest Gift of all JESUS."

 

I do have to admit that in the past few years, for various reasons, I have been more of a Christmas Grinch or Scrooge :Im not listening tothan a Santa or merry Christmas Elf. Partly because of the fact that my birthday is at Christmas and each Christmas season is a reminder of my rapidly aging condition and impending mortality. :backinmyday:And partly because my children are now grown and the magic of Christmas in my children's eyes has been replaced with the realistic distant stare of fear:scared: of having to worry about the cost and hectic pace of providing Christmas.

 

Truth be told, not that I'm proud of it, Christmas, (for me in recent years) has been more of a bothersome burden than a seasonal blessing.

 

My small role in this program consist of organizing teams of volunteers into a assembly line processing machine where these shoe boxes are received, sifted, inspected, sealed, sorted, packaged, packed, loaded and shipped out heading for their final destination to a distant country into the arms of a child.

 

My initial assessment of the process seemed more like an exercise in organizing Chaos. But, to my surprise, as the assignment has been developing what I am seeing is an accumulation of small miracles happening on a shoe box to box basis. Miracles that are humbling and reminding me how small I am in the scheme of things and how great God's love is to make all of the necessary things, people and energy come together to make all of this possible.

 

During the hectic pace of this assignment I have been uncharacteristically catching myself singing Christmas carols. I have the day off tomorrow, I might even put up a few strings of Christmas lights and decorations up around the place.

[bongobobny]

Great news, Bob!!

 

Our Church is very involved with Operation Christmas Child and usually fills a large number of shoeboxes...

[RandyR]

http://randyrick.us/guitars/nuts/CristmasWreath2.gif

[1 Canuck]

That's the real OCC. Never heard of it before but it sounds great!