Christmas Boxes for Port of Houston Seafarers 2016

Thank you to everybody who contributed to this project this year.  The Men in Mission truly appreciate the partnership with the people of MLLC.  They had another successful year in preparing and sending the Christmas Boxes for the Seafarers in 2016.

The boxes were assembled on Monday, November 28, at the regular meeting of the Men in Mission.  A few more were completed in the days following this.  The Men in Mission were able to prepare 49 boxes for the seafarers this year.

In 2014 there were 34 boxes assembled.

In 2015 there were 50 boxes assembled.

In 2016 there were 49 boxes assembled.

Here are photos from the packing and delivery of the boxes to the Port of Houston in late November and early December 2016. Thanks to Brick Peele for delivering the Christmas Boxes to the Seafarers Center, and for taking the photos of the delivery.  Thanks to the Tinker family for taking the photos of the packing on November 28.

Here are scenes from the Houston International Seafarers Center where the packages were delivered.  There are typically over 12,000 packages prepared for the seafarers each year.  These are delivered by the Center Chaplains to various ships which visit the port for loading and/or unloading each December.  These come from various churches and organizations in Texas.  The white bags are the ones ready for delivery.  The chapel and various storerooms are filled with these boxes in preparation for delivery.  The seafarers often have the opportunity to take a break for some friendly hospitality and a good meal at the Houston International Seafarers Center.

The men on the ships truly appreciate the love and hospitality offered by these Christmas Boxes. Think about your life. Most of us get to be home every night with family and/or near friendly neighbors. Those who work in shipping are away from home for months at a time. They are thankful for the work, but they miss their families, friends and home communities.

The Port of Houston Chaplains are our ambassadors to these seafarers. They visit the ships and bring the boxes to the crews. On their web site the chaplains tell us: “Crew sizes vary between 8 and 30, with an average number of 22 seafarers to gift per ship. In 2015, we placed 12,278 gifts on board 538 ships which had seafarers from 65 different countries! These gifts had been donated to the seafarers by 246 churches and organizations! The Christmas boxes are personally carried to each ship by your staff of Port Chaplains.” Their web site is: http://www.venturecd.net/SeafarersCenter.org/Home_Page.htm

With our work together at MLLC we can help reach even more with the love of Jesus Christ.

Here is the official notice about this program from the Port of Houston Chaplains.  Click this link.

For next year (2017) when we do this again, please gather items such as these for the men on the ships – you can buy things throughout the year and drop these off at any time.  There is a large blue storage bin for this purpose in the room directly across from the church office:
Empty shoe boxes or purchased plastic shoe boxes to pack the items.
Address books
Band-aids (fabric)
Baseball caps
2018 Calendars
Comb
Dental Floss
Antiperspirant/deodorant
Disposable razors
Flashlight and batteries
Kleenex – small packs
Lip balm
Lotion
Nail clippers
Gold Bond cream
Gold Bond powder
Hot Chocolate (individual serving size)
Needles and thread
Q-tips
Shaving cream
Soap
Shampoo
Toothbrush
Toothpaste
Gum and hard candy
Key chains
Pocket-sized notebooks
Mechanical pencils
Pens
Playing cards
Microwave popcorn (individual packages)
Socks
Sudoku books
Texas souvenirs
T-shirts
USB flash drives
Word search books