Moving here was tough as all of our earthly belongings were either packed to store or brought on the plane with us. We of course brought books for our boys (and some for ourselves). But as books are a bit heavier, we had to leave most behind. I think that was the hardest thing, besides family and friends, to leave behind. We figured God would help us get some more along the way and lo and behold, someone told me about you guys! We read to our boys every night, and our 2 year old has almost all the books we brought memorized and “reads” them to us at night instead!

Our goal is to continue to read to them every night even when they are old enough to read by themselves. There is something about a family reading and taking an adventure together that really excites me. I can’t wait till we can start reading the Chronicles of Narnia with them. Obviously we have a bit of time to wait on that, but we are excited none-the-less.

I could talk about my boys and our crazy, adventurous life for a long time, so I’ll stop there. Please let us know if you could help us out with some more books. This is such a marvelous idea, by the way! We would be so grateful to have more books in English!

We were so excited to receive a box of books and goodies today! Our four year old son, Isaiah, wasted no time at all getting to the books. He took the two stuffed animals to sleep with him tonight and was thrilled to hear that yes, he can keep them forever. Thank you so much for this great ministry.
P.S. We even used the cookie cutters today and played crazy 8s waiting for the dough to chill! Thanks so much for a box full of goodies

I can't believe you're doing all this for people you dont event know!! I don't know how to thank you.... But know I'm beyond grateful to and for you! Our learning is about to radically change in amazing ways!! We are excited about that! Really excited!!

Funny you should ask about dinos... my littlest right this minute is describing to me the dino he wants for our local store... so definitely no problem there! They LOVE dinosaurs! We're just grateful to get those books!

I'm excited about the Sonlight books too!! I've been trolling their website over and over just excited to see what they have.

Yay for Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings!! My teen will be over the moon for those. I think I will surprise her, won't tell her we got them.

And Theresa, my friend, says she is okay with taking this volume. She usually does it for a rural school she supports in a remote part of Zambia.

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I want you to know how much Jeanne's ministry has meant to our family.

Living in a rural village, we have no libraries or bookstores available. It is difficult and expensive to order books from the US one by one, and almost impossible to know what to buy without actually getting to see and read it first.

Jeanne has removed all those obstacles for us. As a homeschooling mom herself, she knows quality books and what is worth sending half way around the world. She has also taken great pains to understand the likes and needs of our children. Though we have met personally only once, she knows just what books would be perfect for each child. Lots of her time goes into searching for the right books and communicating with mothers, giving them choices and making suggestions.

Every box comes not only with books but with special little toys and a handwritten note for each child and mom. It is very personalized and special. Getting a box from Auntie Jeanne is one of the most exciting things we look forward to in our family. And she has also made it extremely affordable. Most of the books are donated, so we only pay a very small amount for shipping. She covers the rest from donations received.

Not only does Jeanne send books for pleasure reading, but she sent almost the entirety of our Sonlight curriculum this year and has even started collecting the books for the next year of schooling! This has saved us hundreds of dollars, and we are so blessed and thankful for her ministry to us in this way as well.

All in all, it is no exaggeration to say 95% or more of the books our children have are because of Jeanne's love and commitment to foreign workers and their families. I cannot begin to put a value on her ministry.

Thank you SO MUCH for recognizing the value of BookEnds and for helping support foreign workers around the world by supporting this ministry.

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We heard about BookEnds from a mutual friend. He had come to spend a few months with our team and came bearing gifts from BookEnds for each of the families. We were given a book that had been on my Amazon wishlist and on a day I had been asking the Lord how I was going to homeschool our children without easy access to books.

I thought you would enjoy these comments from the week...all at completely random times from our daughter:

`Our house is like a library. There are so many books I like to read!`

(praying at lunch) `Thank you for our food and for all the books that we have in our house.`

(last night when I went to check on her before I went to bed) `I think that my love language is people giving me books that I like to read.`

So, so many of the books we have are from you! Thank you so much for making our house a library and for filling up her little love tank!

We so appreciate it.

The books arrived!

In the morning we skyped with my mom who took out every book that had arrived to her house and showed it to us. SO FUN! Out of all of those books Ella asked her to first read Shhh! We're Writing the Constitution. (Every week my mom reads to Ella over skype. They just finished The Secret Garden and were needing a new book to start.) My mom knows about BookEnds. She helped me make the quilt and I've talked to her about it...BUT, for her to actually open the box and see all the books was fun for me to watch. SHE GETS IT NOW! :) She has definitely joined the BookEnds/JeannieRodkey fan club!

One of my favorite comments was, `This is mathematical! I could never fit all these books in the way she was able to.` Us China girls often think the same thing. Your brain is uniquely suited to getting things in a box. I know that sounds weird but I actually think it is amazing to see the ways God wired us to uniquely fulfill a calling.

I know I am definitely not that spacial!

AND THEN...the other two boxes arrived in the afternoon! So many ahhhssss and ohhhhhsss and `Look Mama...(THE NUTCRACKER! A DOGGIE TOY! MORE BERENSTEIN BEARS! MADELEINE! SPACE! A PURPLE AND YELLOW SLINKY)!!!!` We just sat in the middle and looked through each book.

All four (five including my mom!) feel incredibly encouraged and loved.

It oozes out of those boxes you pack. Thank you so much.