May you all enjoy today and the greatest gift that we ever received.. JESUS!! MERRY CHRISTmas everyone!!

“Don’t be afraid! I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David! And you will recognize him by this sign: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.” Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven—praising God and saying, “Glory to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.” (Luke 2:10-14)

I want to start out by saying MIRACLE CHRISTmas is ALWAYS such a life-changing experience for me. . . I know the families receiving the gifts feel blessed, but I cannot even begin to tell you how blessed we are by “giving of ourselves” and all the people that volunteer on CHRISTmas Eve to pull this off. . you guys are simply amazing!!!. This year we were not going to do an actual “party”.. . we had thought about just delivering the stuff to families and taking a year off in preparation for next year’s BIG EVENT on the Santa Express, but God had other plans and we were obedient. We know it was his plan for this party to take place so we got everything in order and prepared for it and we cannot even begin to express our gratitude for so many of you that made monetary donations and prayer for this party for God to be glorified. One thing I am confident is that God was glorified.

Yesterday we found out that one of our families was not able to make the party, which was a bummer, but we knew that God had other plans, so we remained faithful and continued to pray. The party was awesome and the children loved every gift they got. When I asked them all what their favorite gift was they said “All of them”. That just melts your heart. The families went home with all their gifts as well as boxes and boxes and more boxes of food and paper products, so cool to watch God at work. Iketa, the one mom, told me, I didn’t know we would need a pick up truck to get our stuff home, LOL!! Jesus performed the miracle with 5 loaves and 2 fish and he ALWAYS provides overabundantly for MIRACLE CHRISTmas.

One thing we have always done is provided a hot chicken dinner for the families at the party and then they go home with any leftovers. . Well this year, we were blessed with Bob Evans Restaurant donating a full turkey dinner for each family. . . that is a huge blessing and so unexpected. . super cool, so we decided we would get to-go containers and drive around along with our blankets and cookies/hot cocoa we had and bless them with a hot dinner also. Never in 16 years of having this party have we had extra food, so we were confident this was God’s divine plan for this. It was also super cool that our friends that volunteer at the party, I think were just as excited as us and they went to Gordon’s to purchase the to-go containers. I sit back and just stand in awe how God puts the “perfect people” where they are supposed to be and when they are obedient wonderful things happen for his glory. Danielle, Vanessa, and BJ (Vanessa’s son), decided they wanted to join us in the delivery and our friend, Adrienne, had some extra blankets in her car and some hygienic items also, so this added to the addition our van, so after we got all the families from Miracle CHRISTmas packed up we headed out on our venture to go to the least of these and feed them . . both physically and spiritually. We headed down by the Cherry Street Mission (Or as Josiah calls it the Cherry Street Michigan, LOL) and as we were driving me, Isaiah, and Jonah took turns praying and asking for God to lead us to where we needed to go. We handed a couple boxes out to a few people walking on the street and then headed to the Cherry Street Mission where they feed people and they came out lined up by our van and Vanessa’s car. They were so appreciative and oh my made me so emotional. It is hard to describe how blessed you feel to know you are blessing someone else all in the name of Jesus. We were asking them all if they wanted a blanket, etc. . .It is hard when you run out of food and there are still more that need it. . . just about that time, I gentleman came up to the car and said “Are you who I think I am?” I said “who do you think I am”. . . He said “the lady from channel 11 and 13?” I smiled and squeezed his hand and said “Yes!” He said “God bless you”. He came back out a second time as we found an additional blanket (he had asked for one before but we didn’t think we had anymore, but Jonah found one under the seat). He came back out to tell me.. . “Your name is Joni. . Joni Crothers. . “ I said what is your name and he said “Darryl”. So Brother Darryl came out and got a blanket that we found under the seat, just about that time Warren came out to get a meal, but all we had were cookies and I apologized and said all we had was our hand-baked cookies, but told him they were made with love. . and he said “Yes, I would love them, God bless you all”. He touched my heart. He told us his name was Warren and he had only been in Toledo for 2 days. This was his first year he would not be spending CHRISTmas with family and the holy spirit spoke so loud to me and I got out of the van, hugged him and told him we were his family. . I said you don’t have to be blood to be family, but we all have the blood of God and we are your family. He got the biggest smile and that is when we took the pictures with Brother Warren and Brother Darryl. Darryl then asked me if I would post the picture on my blog or FB, LOL, so Brother Darryl if you see this picture, you have a permanent place in my heart and I know I will see you again. We told them we would pray for them and Merry CHRISTmas. Before we left, our friend, Eric, came out. We have known his family for 15+ years and he was such a young boy but now he is a young man. He came out and said “Joni”. . Oh my goodness, it was so great to see him. We found out Eric works at the Cherry Street Mission. He came out to thank us as they were running low on food. I stand in awe of God’s goodness. How he orchestrates everything. How things just fall in place when you are obedient and follow when God is speaking to you. I cannot even begin to tell you how my heart melts everytime I serve. This is what living is about . . living to give yourself away. . living to serve our brothers and sisters. . living to serve the least of these. I am so blessed that I have a husband that loves serving as much as me. . I am blessed that I have friends that get as excited as me to serve, and my children are growing up to know it is better to give than receive. As we left there the kids had tears in their eyes and said “Mom can we go get more blankets and food”. I am proud of my little ones that they are getting hearts of compassion, hearts like Jesus’, and that they know we need to LOVE EVERYONE. . AT ALL TIMES!!! Thank you Jesus for this day, thank you for giving your life so we could have eternity, and thank you to everyone who volunteered, donated, or prayed for this. . I am confident that God was glorified today and I ask that you pray for everyone we came in contact with today. MERRY CHRISTmas to all of you. . I LOVE YOU GUYS MORE THAN YOU WILL EVER KNOW!!!!!!! For anyone that doesn’t have family or feels like a “misfit”. . you will always be a part of my life and will always FIT IN OUR FAMILY. . THE FAMILY OF GOD:)