Over the years, I have sent boxes to the children for different occasions and have always been amazed by their appreciation for things large, few as they may be, and small.
One of the things that is a part of life in the Philippines is the balikbayan box. This is a thing that is common to the Philippine people. It takes advantage of the lightly loaded container ships heading towards China to pick up goods to bring to the USA among other places. You can pack so much into these boxes and it is almost a flat rate no matter the weight.
I try to send them about every 3 months. It has things that they need or is hard to purchase there or in some cases more expensive to purchase there than to purchase here and ship.
I try to include birthday boxes for them for the children that will be having birthdays before the next box arrives. Often it is something that is both wanted and needed, such as items for school, etc. that they wouldn’t normally get.
For Christmas time, we take up donations for items that they enjoy. We get one or two items for each child for a gift and then add a care package of things like shampoo, toothbrush and toothpaste, towels, and similar items.
A church in Logansport, IN took up a large collection and we could fill 2 large boxes for Christmas a couple years ago. Last still had access to a camera. Ignore the date on some of the pictures. For some reason, they never got the date set right.Christmas, a man in the church made wooden toys for each of the smaller children. Trucks, cars, tractors, and trains. When I visited, they all proudly showed me the toy cars to let me know that they were being careful with them.
Here are some pictures that they were able to take when they had a camera available to borrow. Ignore the date, they never set the date right.
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