Chelsea Dischinger, a stay-at-home mom from Southern California, had an incredible burden to do something to help refugees who have been displaced by ISIS and the Syrian civil war. During a discussion Chelsea had with her husband Michael, he reminded her that their friend Jason Law with World Compassion does relief work in the Middle East.
Soon after that discussion Chelsea picked up the phone, called Jason, and shared her burden to do something. It was soon determined that Chelsea would rally her community to “Fill the Container.” The campaign goal was to fill and ship a 40-foot container – over 20,000 pounds – of food and other aid to refugee families living in Kurdistan through World Compassion.
Chelsea and other volunteers worked tirelessly to put her dream in motion. She printed fliers, painted and delivered boxes to various locations around town to collect goods, posted stories of refugees on social media, appealed to churches, started fundraising competitions, presented Fill The Container to city leaders, and much more.
It was easy to see God’s hand on Chelsea, blessing her with favor as she moved forward. One morning as she walked into a city hall meeting to raise support for Fill the Container, she was surprised as she realized the room was full of people from the local mosque! Though they were there to present an issue regarding a parking issue at their mosque, she was nervous to present her campaign out of fear of angering them. She proceeded anyway. At the end of her speech, the room erupted in applause.
Almost every Muslim present from the mosque came to shake her hand to thank her for her help, as many of their family members had been directly affected by the violence of ISIS and civil war in Syria. The mosque joined the movement and began collecting items that week to help fill the container, presenting a new opportunity for Chelsea and Christians to connect with the Muslim population in their own city. What a miracle!
Completing this project required great sacrifice as Chelsea also carried the responsibility to care for her family. As a stay-at-home mom, a typical day for Chelsea would include presenting Fill the Container at a Corona Chamber of Commerce meeting on the way to pick up her daughters from school, or collecting supplies from ten drop off locations all over the city – when she had a break between cleaning the house and grocery shopping.
Chelsea also rallied volunteers to help organize, document and pack all the supplies safely so it was ready for shipping. After months of hard work, Chelsea persevered as God gave her the favor and the team she needed to finished strong.
Chelsea’s desire was to not only “Fill The Container,” but raise the funds needed to ship it.
It costs about $12,000 (£7,665) to ship a 40-foot container to or warehouse in the Middle East. Chelsea’s container only needs about $4,530 (£2,894) more to be fully funded.
In addition to Chelsea’s container, we have another 40-foot container full of food that is ready to ship. This Christmas will you pray about making a financial gift towards this need of $16,530 (£10,559) to help get these two containers on the way to the Middle East to provide refugees living in the cold with much needed supplies?
We are thankful to all those who donated supplies and gave to help pay for the shipping of Chelsea’s container. We are looking forward to the great harvest we know will come through this aid.
World Compassion provides ongoing relief to nearly 4,000 refugees per month in Kurdistan (northern Iraq). Your gift empowers World Compassion in partnership with local churches in northern Iraq to continue providing food, blankets, heaters and other needed items along with the spoken Gospel and The Story of Jesus booklets to refugees in Iraq.
We are excited to report that we have two containers with 26,300 pairs of Crocs and 38,000 pounds of pinto beans arriving in Kurdistan this week! Let’s keep the momentum going and get these two additional containers moving immediately in order to keep continuous aid flowing to these refugee families.
Together we can transform the lives of these refugees with the love of Jesus Christ.
