Each year around Christmas time for as long as I can remember, I help my mom buy gifts for a child at Grundy Mountain Mission. It's always exciting to find out the child's one "heart desire" for the year, wrap presents and place into a larger box, wrap the larger box, and deliver it to our church. Our church, along with a few others from the community take turns each year delivering the presents along with providing a Christmas Party for the children. This year, Darin and I were able to get a child of our own to buy for. We were extremely excited and had a great time picking out gifts. The gifts the children receive are usually the only gifts they will get during the Holiday Season. This year West Lebanon Christian Church organized the party and collected the gifts to deliver. Aunt Jo and I were blessed to be able to ride along with them and help with the gifts and party. What an amazing and heart-warming trip! Aunt Jo was able to spend time with her boy who is graduating......she has had him since he was in third grade, I was able to meet the very sweet girl Darin and I bought for as well as her adorable brother, we watched children squeal and shriek with joy over the simplest of gifts such as lotion, shoes, clothes, candy, and scarves, had a wonderful dinner show put on by the drama class, listened to a personal testimony of a former student who now works at the school, visited the tiny kids in Toddler Hall, and were blown away by their amazing choir. What an amazing trip and a great place to visit right before Christmas. It's amazing how the kindness and much appreciation of a few kids in the valleys and mountains of Virginia can set your heart in the right place at the right time. I could have taken them all home with me!
A bit about the school: Since 1921, the school has cared for more than 20,000 children from all different backgrounds, ethnicities, and ages. It functions as a full child care facility including a home, school, and church and operates as a nonprofit charitable organization. The children join the school at any age including infancy through high school. Some children remain in contact with their parents, and a few are able to visit families in the summer. These children who have often experienced neglect, poverty, or abuse, find love and hope at Grundy Mountain Mission School. The educational curriculum is superior with the majority of students attending college after graduation, yet along with an education, these children find Christ and the importance of faith.
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