One of the most enjoyable ministries in my church is from Samaritan’s Purse called Operation Christmas Child. We now call it the Shoe Box Ministry. I really enjoy it because it brings us close together as a church and because of the joy we bring to children through the gifts in the many boxes we make.
The idea behind Operation Christmas Child is sending love and witnessing about Jesus in a shoe box. These boxes are sent all around the world and in low income areas here in the US. We fill the boxes with needed things and special toys and fun items too.
We begin to gather toys, hygiene items, candy, socks, shirts, baseball caps, etc. in October. The leader of this ministry then sets a date for us to wrap the boxes with Christmas paper. The next date is for us to fill the boxes and then there’s a week for us to gather all the boxes from our church as well as our county and send them off to the shipping area for our territory. Our church is the designated church for collecting boxes from other churches and organizations.
The fun is in when we fill the boxes. Imagine a small assembly line of people who are smiling and laughing filling boxes with toys (of course there’s the oohing and ahhing too), candy, toothbrushes, soap, washcloths, combs, small books, tiny cars, stuffed animals and even some jewelery for the girls. Each assembly is done for boys or girls and by age level.
There is so much excitement in the air as we do this. It’s like Santa’s workshop! I love doing this and was happy to be able to participate this year. I always take Peanut with me so she can know what it’s like to do something for someone less fortunate than us.
We were doing boxes for this in our MOPS group this past week. I’d never heard of it before.