A lesson in generosity

There are a lot of people I admire in this world-- and Susan Roghanni is certainly right up there. She is "Camille Beckman"-- the woman behind the lotion and cream empire. She let myself, my mom and my friend Mary K into her warehouse the other morning. She turned us loose on her stock room of "extras, seconds and discontinued items"-- and boy did we go to town. We loaded up on soaps, creams, body rubs, scrubs, sachets, shampoos, loofas, lip balm, body butter -- you name it-- in the yummiest of flavors and scents. We had so much stuff, we had to use two industrial rolling carts to carry the goods to our cars.
It's not for us- or you. I know, bummer. We were gathering very heavy gift bags for 13 familes. All refugees who have fled their home countries and have been given safe haven here in Boise. The families are from diverse places such as Congo, Iraq and Burma. They come here with the barest of belongings and the agency we work with sets them up in an apartment, tries to find them a job (a bit tougher during this economic downturn), gets them English lessons and then provides them with a spoon, cup, fork, pillow, blanket etc. for each member of their family. It's a very meagar offering-- but a start. My friends and I try to fill in the blanks with some of their other needs.
I can't think of a better way to teach my children that Christmas isn't all about Santa and opening presents. A family we adopted one year (from Congo) had a very sparse but clean apartment. What struck me the most was that the family had taken the ads from the newspaper (KMart, Walmart, Target) and hung them on the walls to decorate their home, like we would hang paintings or photographs. We've had a wonderful experience each year. And it sure brings home the message of how blessed we are to live in a country where we can live and worship as we please. Times might be lean for many of us this year but we have so many things to be thankful for. Just in case you need a reminder.