"I was extra busy this year in the lead up to Christmas as I was very involved with the Team Hope Christmas shoebox appeal. Team Hope is an Irish, interdenominational Christian development aid charity, working with children, and through them into their families and communities in Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union and Africa and they are best known for their Annual Christmas Shoebox Appeal. The idea of the shoebox appeal is that you fill a shoebox with a range of simple Christmas gifts and Team Hope volunteers check that the boxes meet all customs and safety requirements, seal them and send them on their way by truck or container. Then their international partners deliver the shoeboxes right into a needy child’s hands. The shoebox shows a child God’s care for them – and brings a ray of hope...with lots of excitement and laughter too!

"I was helping out this year as the schools co-ordinator for Waterford, which meant I was in contact with all the schools in Waterford talking to them about the appeal, dropping in flyers, collecting shoeboxes from them etc and as I am planning to do more schools work in the future I thought this might be a good initial contact with schools. The appeal went very well as we sent over 5,000 shoeboxes from Waterford to children in other countries. It was also good to work with others from the local Redeemed Christian Church of God as their pastor was co-ordinating the project. There was a lot more work involved than we all had anticipated but thankfully we got there in the end."