Anne Salvador, a member of Frenchs Forest Baptist Church forwarded this story to our Principal and we felt it was worth sharing. Anne writes… During Christmas 2007 my friend Jan Bridges gave me a cash gift to be used for the ministry of Network Heaven for Christmas Gifts for the Poor in Sri Lanka. I was told $10 of this was from her daughter Sonia, a student at Covenant. It was not from her pocket money – but that she’d worked hard for it.
As it turned out this gift given ‘sacrificially’ has had a huge impact on me!
Between Christmas and New Year I took a day’s leave to have my hair permed. I had allocated 3 hours for this and also slotted in a couple of other jobs for the day. I did not have ‘christmas bargains’ on the list. However, as it turned out I had my hair washed and cut instead so I had 2 hours to spare and as I was heading past Big W and decided I would pop in for 2 minutes. Whilst there I heard a red light special for 20 cents & I asked someone if I’d heard it right! All Christmas gift wrap was being reduced to 20 cents per roll.
I immediately walked over to the pile and managed to grab hold of 10 or so rolls. I knew I needed much more as we did not have any left over from 2007. Just then I saw a friend and asked her to hold on to the rolls until I got myself a trolley. I filled the trolley up and got myself in the queue to have them “specially marked”! Most of the people around me wanted to know why I had so much gift wrap. When I told them how I organize gifts for over 300 children others offered to go and get more for me. The lady behind me suggested I get behind her so she could help me with the load when my turn came. We still had to go to the check out. It was a physical nightmare!. I felt I was shaking inside but was also overjoyed! I said Lord “Thank You Jesus” – I see Your hand on this. Cutting a long story short I finally got home and decided to sort and get the rolls bundled up properly ready for storage. I noticed some of the rolls were heavier than others. When I read the fine writing on the package some were 15mtr rolls and others 8 or 10 mtrs. Gathering up all the rolls I now had around 500 meters of gift wrap and the cost? Just $7.20. A little girl had worked hard to provide me with her gift for the poor & the Lord had truly given me what I believe was the “green light” for 2008. He has provided the paper … so why would he NOT provide the gifts in 2008?”
This year I’ve have requests for 472 individual packages. All of the disadvantaged children are from the Bethlehem Creche, 2 Orphanages, tsunami victims, children living in plantations, children of prisoners, and beggars to name a few.
Due to high inflation (around 26% - the highest in south Asia) I am well aware that those families earning less than $2 per day and living well below the poverty line cannot think about Christmas. They are focused on where they will get their next meal.
At the time I purchased the paper I took it as confirmation that God would provide - and he has indeed done so for the past 7 years. At the time I secretly thought “Lord I hope you are not going to stretch me too thin in 2008”. Having packed 300 individual parcels and provided gifts for 1,000 families I felt I could not cope with any more gifts in 2008.
However, the number is almost 200 in excess to what I had planned - but I keep thinking of the “green light” I received from the Lord and press on. These gifts are now being collected and will be packed during the school holidays in September and shipped to Sri Lanka. They will arrive in the port of Colombo in late November early December and cleared directly by the Carmalite Sisters, and the Sisters of Charity and distributed in the weeks leading up to Christmas.
“I thank God for Sonia and how God used her to encourage me in this ministry for another year.”
More information about “Network Heaven” can be found at www.networkheaven.org
Contact: Anne 02 9451 0906 (after 7pm)
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