Today I, along with three other adults, had the privilege of escorting 13 fine young Awana kids on a shopping trip. So? What's so special about shopping? We all do it. Especially this time of year! Well, it was special because they weren't buying things for themselves or their families or even their friends. They were buying very carefully selected items for complete strangers: children who might not get Christmas presents otherwise.

Each year, in early November, our Awana group prepares for, serves then cleans up a delicious baked potato dinner. Everyone comes, enjoys a great meal and fellowship, and if they would like, makes a free-will donation. All proceeds go towards adopting 'Angels' from the Salvation Army Angel Tree Project. This year we had enough money to buy presents for six kids.

Preparations for the Potato Bake: Here we see some hard-working kids cleaning vegetables and tearing lettuce for salad. Yes, they all washed their hands.

See the hungry people lining up? It was really tasty, as usual! We had ice cream sundaes for dessert. It took a whole lot of scooping to serve everyone!

So this brings us to today. We left right after church and headed for Taco Bell. Besides being obscenely slow, we enjoyed lunch. Then, off to the stores. To be honest, I would have loved to have followed the groups around while they were shopping and snapped pictures of them making their choices. However, I do have three kids in the mix and I knew that wouldn't go over well at all. Suffice to say, I was quite proud of each and every kid at how much thought and discussion they put into each item they chose. Never has an envelope of money been more cautiously spent. They each wanted their 'Angel' to have the best Christmas ever. They carefully considered whether one jacket would be warmer than another. They debated over whether to get the blue shirt or the brown one. And they certainly didn't forget the batteries! At no time during the entire day did I see them think of themselves. I am so glad I was able to go and see the love of Jesus so plainly through them. So, while I don't have very many pictures of our trip to show you, it was a very beautiful thing to see.