The Furgon Arrived!

We got the call last night at 7:30pm that another "furgon" had arrived at the church, so we immediately dropped everything and headed to ICC. When a furgon arrives, that means a large shipping container has come across the ocean from Chicagoland and has finally landed (after months) at the front door of our church. Each furgon contains thousands of needed things for the churches we work with... from clothes and shoes to industrial stoves and fridges. When we get the call, immediately (no matter what time of day or night) there are dozens of church volunteers there to help us unpack, organize and distribute all of the things. It feels like Christmas, really, as we open up boxes and know how much the things inside will mean to many people we've been working with. It is such an example to me of all of the friends in the United States who have been "blessed to be a blessing"... and are following through with the call of Christ to help the poor, even if they can't see the results. I'm super blessed as I get to see the smiles and excitement, and it's really cool.
A few blogs back, a pastor named Marino Moreta was really hoping for some clothes/shoes... and we have 40 boxes of clothes for his church/community. He is working on getting a banana truck to the capital to retreive the boxes for him right now, and is very very excited.
I also was more-than-proud today/yesterday as we had about 12 boys from the soccer team volunteer their energy to come help out with the unpacking! I heard "Marx" and "Estefani" all day long b/c they loved to show us all of the new soccer balls that had arrived (there were some World Cup silver ones that even I was excited about!)... but most of these kids are not Christians and some live on the streets, so it is exciting to see them come to the church to help out and know it is a safe place for them. Could be a first step in a spiritual journey for many of these kids.....