Sisters in Service

These smiles are one of the reasons we are here, doing what
we can to ease the burdens of others. 

                                          

The blessings continue to come as we move forward aiding God's children in the Balkans. We had the honor of having Sister Sharon Eubank join us for a recent refugee project! She is a member of the Relief Society General Presidency which oversees the church's women's organization throughout the world. The LDS church Relief Society has approximately 7.1 million members in over 188 countries, making it one of the largest women's organizations in the world. Not only that, but she is also the Director of Welfare Services for the entire church. She's definitely a VIP. We had a service project planned for church members in Croatia to assemble hygiene kits and school supplies for the refugees when her visit was announced. I contacted Sister Melonakos, the mission president' wife, to see if we should reschedule the service project or perhaps invite Sister Eubank to join us. Sister Melonakos was inspired to turn it into a fantastic day of service for women and when Sister Eubank was contacted about the idea, she wholeheartedly agreed. 

Penny Plus has been a great partner with LDS Charities for obtaining a vast array of supplies ranging from toilet and sanitation materials to school supplies. The only problem is they are based in Sarajevo. So...once again we faced the challenge of smuggling goods across the border... hundreds of notebooks, art supplies, pens and pencils, pencil bags, crayons...and one little hatchback car! We've become pretty adept at making things look like we are just "traveling". We packed notebooks in suitcases, shoved crayons under the seats, art supplies found themselves in the cargo area buried under more suitcases and pillows. I'm not sure we could have fit one more ruler in the car! Thank goodness the backpacks had been shipped directly to the refugee center from the church area headquarters in Frankfurt. Once we were safely across the border without incident, we had to drop our full load of supplies off at the refugee center so we could fill the car up again with school supplies that are specific to Zagreb. This wasn't the first time I had longed for my big SUV here on the mission. 

After obtaining all the additional supplies we needed for the school children, we went to the refugee center in Zagreb to dig through the four huge pallets of shoes, clothes and miscellaneous boxes they had received from LDS Charities in search of the hygiene supplies. Once the hygiene supplies were located, we spent a few hours organizing everything for the service project the next day. We had a wonderful turnout of 25 women, including some awesome young missionaries, senior sister missionaries and two young women in addition to Sister Eubank and Sister Melonakos. As the project commenced, curious children began to gather around the doors of the workshop, drawn like bugs to bright lights in the darkness. Their excitement radiated as they learned they would be getting new things so they could be like the rest of the children when they went to school on Monday. They didn't seem to care that all the backpacks were the same black with orange trim bags, not embellished with Frozen or Spiderman. They didn't mind that they didn't get to pick out their own notebooks. They just knew that when they went to school on Monday they wouldn't sit at their desks empty handed. They would have new shoes to wear, pencils to write with and notebooks to write in as they begin learning a new language and learning to live a new life. And they knew that someone cared. 

They say, "A picture is worth a thousand words!" and I'm sure everyone would rather see pictures than read a thousand words.... so here you go! (Sorry we don't have more pictures of the refugees, but we were advised not to take many pictures of them to protect their privacy. We had permission from the few we did take pictures of.) I know that God loves all his children and I am blessed to feel that love everyday. And it's a good thing too, because the next four months will be fueled by that love!

Selfie with Sister Sharon Eubank! Doesn't she have a great smile!
What a joy to work side by side with such an inspirational woman.

Sister Grahovac brought several visiting family members to help!

Reading the list and checking it twice!
Look at that multi backpack technique.

We had a list of items to be put in each backpack. The list
included the grade and gender so the boys didn't get girly notebooks! 

These ladies had quite the system down as they assembled
500 hygiene kits in less than two hours. 

Sister Eubank jumped right in filling backpacks. I loved the
front pack idea to leave hands free for packing!

How many pencils? 

I thought the kids in the US needed a lot of school supplies
until we started gathering supplies for the Zagreb refugees.

I put the trio of young Sister Missionaries on "quality control"
after I discovered a few packing errors. They were super helpful!

Sister McColm and Sister Dahl were in charge of digging through
boxes and locating the correct size shoes for the school children.
Each child received a new pair of athletic shoes and "slippers".
They wear the "slippers" inside the school everyday.

President Melonakos is an avid videographer and enjoyed
documenting the amazing efforts of the women.

Sister Eubank was quickly converted to the "front pack" technique!

Sister Melonakos is always so full of energy! We are so blessed
to have such a great example of service and love leading the mission.

The children have to have lined notebooks, grid notebooks,
music notebooks, writing notebooks, information booklets, and art
notebooks... many of which are grade specific. This job required
some brain power and decision making.

Many of the children gathered at the entrance to the workshop
where we were working to see what was going on. They were very
excited when they learned they would be getting school supplies.
And cookies from Denny....

Sister Dahl and Sister McColm completed their task organizing
all the shoes for the children, however as we began the process of
distributing shoes to the children, things got a bit out of control
with children and parents lined up at the door waiting for their shoes.
(Exactly as the Red Cross staff had predicted - we will be better listeners next time!)
Red Cross staff decided it would be best to wait until the
children could be be called in one family at a time.We quickly agreed
and shut the doors, promising they would all get new shoes in time for school. 

We packaged over 500 hygiene kits. Notice on the right, a few
of the refugee children sneaked in and joined the assembly line.

These two refugee boys did a great job putting toothbrushes
into the hygiene kits with the assistance of the volunteers.

And more hygiene kits....

Sister Melonakos keeping her head in the game!

These young refugees loved talking with Sisters Dahl and McColm.

We assembled 50 backpacks full of school supplies. We were only
able to hand out a few backpacks before it was apparent that, even with the
help of the Red Cross staff, our distribution methods were not effective.
But every child will receive one before they head out the door of
the refugee center into their new adventure of school in Croatia.

500 hygiene kits packed and ready to be distributed. The Croatia
Red Cross distributes them twice a month to all refugees. This will
only be enough for one day of distribution! There are about 500
refugees currently living in this center waiting for asylum.

These two little girls were so excited to get their backpacks and
then they said they wanted to have their picture taken with the missionaries.

This is our car after the service project on our way to deliver
backpacks and shoes for the school children in Kutina,
  which houses only families and unaccompanied minors.

Half of the backpacks were taken to the center in Kutina. They were
so excited to have much needed supplies so the children could
walk into school on the first day and feel like everyone else!