Nativities Going To Kosovo.

Last week I got an e-mail from Darin's mom. For those who do not know, she and Sam are on a two year mission in Kosovo. The country is predominantly Muslim, and there are very few Christian churches. The recent converts to the church have never celebrated Christmas and most had never heard the term, "nativity". So Marilyn wanted to give each new member, investigator and friend a nativity as a Christmas gift. She asked if I could look into getting some at a store and mail them. It needed to be done pretty quickly, so they could arrive in time for Christmas.

Of course I said yes, I will totally take care of it. But truly, I did not even have a two hour block last week to run into Salt Lake to shop for nativities. While the kids were at gymnastics Monday night, I searched our little town. Walmart, Joanne, Family Dollar, Dollar Tree, Cal-Ranch, etc. Nothing! One ugly nativity at Walmart and that was it!!! I was shocked. Not even any nativity ornaments, and it was hard to find Christmas cards with nativities on the cover. Seriously, there was no Christ in our stores' Christmas! I was baffled for a couple of hours. Darla (sis-in-law) texted to see what I had found. I didn't reply because I was determined to come up with something.

And I did! Late Monday night I sent out an e-mail to most of the addresses I have for people who live in Stansbury Park. I told of the dilemma, and asked for any unwanted, not being used, nativities, nativity ornaments, or any and everything related to the nativity. There was a time crunch, since I wanted to get them in the mail ASAP. Nativities needed to be dropped off at my house within the next 36 hours. I hit "send" and hoped for the best.

And man alive did the incredible people of Stansbury Park deliver!! I have no idea how many nativities I received. I took pictures of a handful. One gal brought me a stack of brand new nativities that she had bought in Salt Lake just for this. Another gal brought beautiful nativity tree ornaments that she had picked up at Deseret Book just for this. One friend brought a stack of the LDS nativity posters, as well as other posters of The Saviour. My first response to the e-mail was right after I sent it at midnight. This friend said she was making nativity ornaments from clothespins and would be happy to make a bunch of extra ones that next day for me to send. A sweet ward member gave me some tiles with vinyl nativities on....and then had me wait at the car....while she ran back into the house to get a small nativity that was on display in her entry way. It was given to her daughter and I know it was special to them. One family gave a nativity that they had enjoyed for years, and included a family photo and letter. Several of my school students brought nativities or ornaments to school for me.

 

At the 36 hour deadline, I loaded up to head to the little local post office. On my way there, in the car, I got a text from a woman I do not know, saying she had a nativity for me. I got her address and picked it up. I did not send her the e-mail, but it had been passed on to her. Hers was the biggest nativity set that I received. I was at the post office for an hour and a half. Long story about shipping overseas, needing to use flat rate shipping boxes, flat rate shipping boxes being quite small, and some serious packaging skills! Two women at the post office helped me the entire time! They typed and printed all the required forms, addressed all my boxes, gave me free packing peanuts, helped me pack and were pretty much life savors for me!! I know I would have been in tears at a regular, big post office. I had no idea you even had to fill out forms to send stuff overseas. And at any other post office I would have been completely on my own to fill out those forms and assemble and label all the boxes. Because of the small size of box I had to use to get the best rate, we had to take nativities out of their boxes and stuff pieces wherever we could fit them. Sam and Marilyn will be playing "match the nativity set" when they receive all the boxes! As I was monopolizing the time and space of these postal workers, other customers were coming in and out with packages to mail. A woman came in to mail a package and  noticed what I was doing. I have no idea who she is, but she said to me, "Hey, are you the one who is collecting nativities to send to Kosovo?" I was so surprised and felt so blessed to live in a community where people helped spread the word so quickly, about something that they felt was important. Folks were excited to be a part of this 36 hour project. Excited to be the ones to help get the first batch of nativities to the county of Kosovo, to help new members celebrate their first Christmas. Some felt it was important enough to tell their own children about it, and get them involved in helping to donate a nativity that day. The packages have not arrived in Kosovo yet. I pray they arrive safely. I pray all the boxes arrive, so matching nativity sets can be complete. (Some have a wise man in one box and the baby Jesus in another, etc.) But in the unfortunate event that they do not arrive....it will still have been worth it. Worth seeing the true spirit of this season in action. Worth my kids bringing me packages from the front door, excited to say "we got another nativity for Kosovo". Worth it because I know Sam and Marilyn will tell the people how excited we were to share our nativities and how we prayed they would arrive and how we love that The Gospel of Jesus Christ has come into their lives, and how we hope they feel the magic of celebrating His birth like we do.
THANK YOU THANK YOU to all who helped out and participated and passed the word on to others. It was one of my favorite 36 hours of a Christmas season! Can't wait to post how they are received! I know my mother-in-law will take pictures for us!! And you just may see a picture of your nativity with it's new owner in Kosovo! Merry Christmas!!