Supporting Our Soldiers on FOBs

(Soldiers on FOBs – Forward Operating Bases – often have little or no access to basic supplies. They truly need – and appreciate – our support.)

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My dear friends were responsible for the sponsoring of 15 boxes that were sent out today!  

A heartfelt thank you to Peter and Dianne, and Brian and Reneé.

God is good!

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Yep, you read that right… Fifteen boxes were mailed out today to our troops overseas!  The stack of boxes probably reached the ceiling by the time our lovely postal employees were done processing them.  “It’s like Christmas back here!”  A big thank you to Alice and Nancy, our local postal employees in King City, Oregon.  They have been encouraging from the very beginning, and very excited to see the efforts multiply so dramatically in the last few months.

So where are the boxes going?

Glad you asked… *ahem* Okay, maybe I forced the issue, but I wanted to share with you what all this work is for… Nearly all of my contacts are stationed in Iraq or Afghanistan, and these are the conditions our soldiers are dealing with over there:

• Roxetta Hunnicutt, Afghanistan: We have access to laundry facilities but we have to provide our own laundry detergent. Soldiers who are at other places do not have laundry or shower facilities. They rely on washing their clothes with bottle water and using baby wipes when they are available.The px that is available to us is very small and has extremely minimal resources. (Roxy and her troops were the first care package to be sent out 9/10/10. We’ve sent out ten care packages since then, including four we shipped off today!)
• Lacey Hamilton, Afghanistan: Since our team lives locally in a village, we do not have the convenience of comfort items like soldiers stationed on bigger bases throughout Afghanistan. As a result, we only have the essential items to carry us week to week. The best part about our jobs is that we engage with locals on a daily basis by sponsoring a free medical clinic and training local police forces so that each village establishes their own security. (We’ve supported these soldiers since 11/13/10 with letters and a care package. Two more in progress.) 
• CPT Sandra Reeves, Afghanistan: Speaking of kids, our Soldiers continue to try to build rapport with the locals by providing the kids candy, pens and pencils. Regretfully, our supplies our dwindling. We learned early on that tossing candy, pens, pencils, or toys as we pass villages keeps the kids busy picking up the goodies instead of rocks. . . or vegetables , for that matter.  (We’ve enjoyed sending letters weekly to Sandy and her troops, as well as a total of 8 care packages since 9/27/10. One box currently pending postage.)
• SGT Edmun C. Fore, Iraq: This letter is my personal plead for support because our platoons are in serious need. Many soilders do not have the monetary resources to continue buying items like soap, wet wipes, toothpaste, shampoo… Many soldiers have families back home to support so even with the extra, money is tight. (We’ve supported Edmun and his troops since 10/04/10 with weekly letters and 3 care packages.)
• SFC William Cook, Afghanistan:  We are doing great on food items but really have a need for laundry detergent. The Afghans charge us an arm and leg for anything. A medium size box of (generic) laundry detergent is $50.00.  (We’ve supported his troop since 10/31/10 with letters of encouragement and a care package. One package in progress.)
• SGT Ricardo Branch, Iraq: I’m basically a late deployer here after having left last month from Hawaii and here on my third deployment there’s a noticable lack of proper things at the PX/BX on our camp. Things like hygine equipment, wet ones (baby wipes) and other basic necessities on our camp like toothpaste get sold our really, really fast. (We’ve supported Ricardo and his troops since 9/14/10 with letters and 4 care packages.)

 

With the packages that went out this week, we’ve reached 78 boxes sent since 9/10/10!

That means – and this is staggering to me –  that we may even reach the hundred-mark by the end of this month!  There are still 24 boxes pending postage, and support has been expressed from multiple friends and family.  So on behalf of the 1,769 soldiers my contacts have access to, thank you!

 

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If you would like to help sponsor the postage for a care package to our troops overseas, please contact:

 Jennifer Fair
c/o Berean Publishing
16685 SW King Charles Ave.
King City, OR 97224

daughterbrown@gmail.com

Thank you!!