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Just One

November 7, 2023 | Uncategorized

Thank You, Roy & Martha!

October 13, 2023

Today there’s a chill in the air and a plan in the works for 1,000 shoeboxes to be distributed to YOU on Sunday morning.

One thousand opportunities to spread the Gospel to children who don’t have a relationship with Jesus.  One thousand gifts of love and cheer to impoverished families.  One thousand chances to give a little extra, to express our creativity, and to think about others more than ourselves.

While we’re discussing numbers, here are a few more to note.

ONE MAN wrapped all the boxes.

His name is Roy Rotz, and he is 89 years old.  He and his wife Martha spend almost every day investing their time in Operation Christmas Child.  After breakfast, Roy begins to wrap.  It takes him 15 minutes to wrap each box, and 42 small pieces of tape.  He has been wrapping boxes since 2007 and has been keeping track of his totals from each year.  His biggest year was 3,650 boxes in 2018.  If you add up all the years, he has wrapped over 43,000 total boxes.  That is roughly 10,750 hours of time.  If you divide that into 40 hour chunks, you could imagine that Roy has been wrapping boxes as a full-time job, solid, for over 5 years.

That’s dedication!

Martha is no less devoted.  She has been sewing “fillers” for shoeboxes for 21 years.  At the collection centers, certain items have to be pulled out of boxes — like candy, toothepaste, and liquids — leaving empty spots.  Workers will use items like Martha’s sewn products to replenish these boxes.

Martha uses scrap fabric that is donated to her to make — and this is just THIS YEAR’S TALLY:

    • 4,000 totes (we double-checked this amazing number… Martha confirms she makes them in large batches!)
    • 100 gym bags
    • 50 (28″ square) quilts
    • 250 scarves
    • 300 skirts and tops
    • 300 purses
    • Plus hair scrunchies; she doesn’t know how many!

 

When asked where she finds the time, Martha laughs and says, “After I have the house swept and clean, what else do I have to do?”

Last year Roy suffered a heart attack, and for many weeks he was very ill.  But one day, Martha describes, he got up and went to his wrapping table, and began to wrap boxes again.

Both Roy and Martha dismiss the notion that their efforts are praiseworthy.  They are quick to deflect any appreciation to the team of men and women who pick the boxes up from their home and delivers them to the lobbies.

This team a group of friends is led by Neal Rotz, Roy’s grandson.  As the years have passed, their families have grown, and they now bring the kids to help with loading up the shoeboxes into a truck, and unloading them at the church.

Kaitlin Michael is part of the group and says, “Something that has been fun to watch over the years is how the kids get involved with carrying the boxes, loading them on the truck, and helping to unload them as well. The kids’ favorite part is riding on the cart and the elevator! They also enjoy getting to have first pick choosing their box to fill for OCC.”

“We’re just ordinary people,” Roy says, objecting to any honor for himself.  He describes that this is his ministry, and as he wraps the boxes, he prays for the child who will receive it.

 

“If just one child receives Christ,

it will all be worth it.”

Roy Rotz

 

Church family, can we ask ourselves: what am I willing to do to win just one child to Christ?

Or perhaps: what is my unique area of ministry that might seem small, but which God can use to impact the world?

Let’s be inspired by Roy and Martha — by those that donate fabric and shoeboxes, those that do the unseen duty of loading and unloading them, the kids that giggle in the elevators and go about the excited task of selecting the most beautiful box to fill — let’s be inspired to serve others more.  To give more.  To invest time in the Kingdom that might now be spent in personal pleasure.   

We can start by filling shoeboxes.  The signature Rotz boxes will be available this Sunday in the lobbies.  You can also fill a virtual box online here at the King Street Church page:  Build a Shoebox

Below is a video we created in December 2016, during which we interviewed Roy and Martha.  If you don’t know them personally, this is a great little profile.