Written by: Kate Snyder, Executive Assistant
This week is Christmas Week at EECM. Between.JPG)
today and Friday, we anticipate that nearly 2,500 Christmas gifts will be delivered to EECM and distributed to our clients. Santa Claus, eat your heart out.
So far, about half of the gifts have arrived. Most of them are temporarily housed at the Shady Avenue Christian Assembly – a gracious and wonderful congregation that opens its doors to this program every year. There are piles of gifts. Mountains of gifts. Brightly wrapped packages literally cascading from every available surface. It’s awesome.
I was over at the church yesterday, helping congregations unload their deliveries and sorting gifts, and I enjoyed perusing the gift tags and speculating about the contents of the boxes. There was one gift in particular I was keeping my eyes open for. I didn’t even know for sure that it would be coming. But I hoped, and I watched as the presents piled up.
And then, I opened the back doors of a 15 passenger van piled high with gifts and there it was. I knew immediately that the present I had been waiting for had arrived. It was an absolutely enormous rectangular box, with clever hand-holds cut into the wrapping paper to make it easier to carry. Inside that box is a brand-new bicycle.
Why was I so eagerly anticipating the arrival of this particular gift? Because it’s a sweet story, worthy of the season. The soon-to-be-recipient of this bike is a 15 year old boy who has a variety of developmental delays. His mother came to fill out the Christmas gift request forms and said that what he wanted most in the world for Christmas was a bike. It was his only Christmas wish. Ordinarily, we don’t put down requests that large – our congregations are generous but a new bike really is a big present – but we decided to go ahead and write it down, with a little note explaining the circumstances, and hope for the best.
I can only imagine what a joyous day Christmas morning will be for that young man and his family. I don’t know who donated the bike, but I hope they know what a very special gift it was and how much it will be appreciated.
This week is Christmas Week at EECM. Between
.JPG)
today and Friday, we anticipate that nearly 2,500 Christmas gifts will be delivered to EECM and distributed to our clients. Santa Claus, eat your heart out.So far, about half of the gifts have arrived. Most of them are temporarily housed at the Shady Avenue Christian Assembly – a gracious and wonderful congregation that opens its doors to this program every year. There are piles of gifts. Mountains of gifts. Brightly wrapped packages literally cascading from every available surface. It’s awesome.
I was over at the church yesterday, helping congregations unload their deliveries and sorting gifts, and I enjoyed perusing the gift tags and speculating about the contents of the boxes. There was one gift in particular I was keeping my eyes open for. I didn’t even know for sure that it would be coming. But I hoped, and I watched as the presents piled up.
And then, I opened the back doors of a 15 passenger van piled high with gifts and there it was. I knew immediately that the present I had been waiting for had arrived. It was an absolutely enormous rectangular box, with clever hand-holds cut into the wrapping paper to make it easier to carry. Inside that box is a brand-new bicycle.Why was I so eagerly anticipating the arrival of this particular gift? Because it’s a sweet story, worthy of the season. The soon-to-be-recipient of this bike is a 15 year old boy who has a variety of developmental delays. His mother came to fill out the Christmas gift request forms and said that what he wanted most in the world for Christmas was a bike. It was his only Christmas wish. Ordinarily, we don’t put down requests that large – our congregations are generous but a new bike really is a big present – but we decided to go ahead and write it down, with a little note explaining the circumstances, and hope for the best.
I can only imagine what a joyous day Christmas morning will be for that young man and his family. I don’t know who donated the bike, but I hope they know what a very special gift it was and how much it will be appreciated.
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