This week’s Bouquets go to —

From Mike Olson, Escanaba:

Congratulations to all the players, coaches and supporters of Escanaba, North Dickinson, Kingsford, Bark River-Harris and Menominee football teams for their outstanding performances on the field this fall. All went far into the playoffs, most losing in the finals and semifinals. The North Dickinson team even had a pregame encouragement video from renowned NFL coach John Gruden. Super-congrats to Menominee for hoisting the number one champions trophy in their division. It is sad that after some 125 years the annual Esky/Menominee games ceased. I have a pic of the Eskymos playing the Maroons in 1906 down there. Esky/Menominee this year — what a game that would have been! Do note that all of these teams are located in the south central U.P. and approximately 12% of all U.P. land mass. Must be in the water … or the venison.

Update on Operation Christmas Child

From LuAnn Lindquist, logistics coordinator and administrative assistant for Operation Christmas Child in the eastern U.P. of Michigan:

It will be a very Merry CHRISTmas for millions of children around the world. It was a successful year for the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for collecting the Operation Christmas Child shoebox gifts.

In Delta County, National Collection Week began with a packing party at Grace Church in Gladstone, on Sunday, Nov. 16; packing over 800 shoebox gifts with school supplies, clothes, toys, and other fun gifts. Dozens of people from our community came to help. 

The following week, Nov. 17-24, the central drop-off site for the Eastern U.P. counties collected 6,325 shoebox gifts. Together with the western U.P. collection of 3,805 shoebox gifts, we are celebrating and so grateful for 10,130 shoebox gifts that were loaded and transported to the closest OCC Processing Center in Aurora, Ill. From there they will make their way to customs and transported to one of over 130 countries around the world, to children who may never have heard of Jesus Christ before.

“The Greatest Gift” booklets, which is the Gospel Good News, goes with each box … having been translated in over 100 different languages. Most of these gifts go to war-torn countries, where children have been left behind as orphans, or the poorest of the poor, suffering from malnutrition and diseases. And most have never heard about Jesus before or ever received a gift. Then they are invited back for 12 weeks of lessons through “The Greatest Journey”, where many children come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior, spread the Good News to their families and communities too. Many new church plants are created… all because of a simple shoebox gift!

I want to send out a special thank you to all who make this CHRISTmas ministry happen. A very special thank you to Greg Pederson, our central drop-off leader; to Grace Church in Gladstone, our central drop-off site for now over 25 years; to all who donated gifts and stuff to pack … and money for shipping/printing the booklets/training the teachers/and more; to all the drop-off leaders and project leaders across the U.P., the U.S. and seven other sending countries … and all who pray to help this ministry continue to thrive. 

Would you still like to pack a shoebox? You can go to Samaritans Purse and select “Build a Box” online, select items you would like packed and pay online. That is a fun project to do with your children or grandchildren.

Thank you all so much!