Virtual Handprint Turkeys and a Very Real Thank You

It’s Thanksgiving time and that means school children across the country have written out their reasons for gratitude on handprint turkeys fashioned from construction paper and Elmer’s glue and stapled them to bulletin boards. This blogpost is sort of like that. Except doesn’t involve any construction paper or Elmer’s glue and there’s not actually a bulletin board. Instead, it is filled with many virtual handprint turkeys and a very real “Thank you!”

Saturday, November 18, two containers were loaded full of around 5000 backpacks filled with school supplies, Bibles, 3000 pairs of shoes, food, cable, and sundry other supplies. The loadings took place in Walkersville Maryland and Edgewater Florida. As mentioned in a previous post, Allen and Trish were having meetings in Mississippi and were unable to be present for the fun-filled process of loading.

Loading was almost like some very strange game show challenge since the shipping company only allows two hours to load before the containers are trucked to the port and put in place to start their journey to Honduras. (Of course, Allen pointed out it’s always better to pay $95 per additional hour, as needed, if it means the difference between a fully loaded container and shipping air!) The weight of the items inside the container must be well balanced to prevent some shipping disaster. It is not a task for the faint of heart!

List of Names on the Virtual Handprint Turkeys:

• Thank you to Jim and Denise Cofer in Maryland for all of their hard work. Jim headed up the loading effort in Maryland.
• Thank you to Terry Shores and family. Terry was in charge of the container loading in Florida. This was his first year loading without Allen on hand.
• Thank you to Kim and Jonathan Hall for their tireless work with Manna 4 Lempira. Your turkey has real colored feathers purchased from a craft store!
• Thank you to all the Manna 4 Lempira sponsors who diligently filled backpacks. In many cases, they not only filled backpacks for their sponsored children, but also provided backpacks for children who do not have sponsors. Sponsors such as Autumn Dean, Monica Lederman and family, Megan Prence, and Courtney Christian are deserving of special turkeys that are sprinkled with glitter.  
• Thank you to Joplin and Andrea Emberson and Andrea’s mother, Lori Mills for helping to head up a backpack drive at The Well Church in Derby Kansas. Thanks to everyone at The Well Church who helped with this effort by filling and organizing backpacks.
• Thank you to Steve Kreidt, Jill Majetich, and Christ Church of Orlando for filling backpacks.
• Thank you to Michelle Spanos, Katie Henry, Mike Martin, Michelle Mercer, and the people of Edgewater Alliance Church who participated in a huge backpack drive and assisted in loading the Florida container.
• Thank you to Gary and Mary Richard and everyone at Fredericktowne Baptist Church for filling backpacks with school supplies so a bunch of children in Western Honduras will have the necessary tools for learning. Thanks also to this crew for their faithful work in loading a container every year for many years now!
• Thank you to Heath and Chelsea Johnson, Rob McFarland, Steven Buswell, and everyone at Lighthouse Church who filled backpacks.
• Thank you to Rick Tawney and the good people of Life Community Church for filling backpacks.
• Thank you to Doug Richards and the congregation of Faith Assembly of God Church.
• Thank you to anyone who prayed for this massive undertaking, purchased school supplies for the effort, or filled backpacks. Whether you provided supplies for one or 100, you are appreciated!

Due to the efforts of all of the handprint turkey worthy people, each child with Manna 4 Lempira and the Sister Church Program will receive a filled backpack! The extras will be used for Gifts for Gracias. Allen reminded me that each backpack filled with school supplies would cost around $100 in Honduras. For the Honduran family with an annual income of $1000 and 4 school age children, you can see how important a backpack drive is. It’s so important that Allen is already looking ahead at the possibility of filling three containers next year!

- posted by Christi