Gifts Going Global
Happy December!
So many people around the world are celebrating this special time of year with good tidings and great joy. In other parts of the world, people are scrimping everything they can to give their family and children a happy holiday. Sometimes, you don’t even realize that there are families just like this in your own backyard. Operation Christmas Child is an organization that donates shoe boxes with lots of goodies and toys to kids in need all across the globe.
Operation Christmas child has helped millions of kids from over 75 different countries get the Christmas that they truly deserve and learn about the Gospel. On National Collection week, hundreds of thousands of people build a shoe box online or they take their box to one of the drop-off locations. If you pay online, you can track your box and see where it is going. At the drop-off locations, one of several volunteers will get you to sign in and they will help you get you box ready for changing lives. Before leaving, a volunteer will pray over your box that it gets to the right child and blesses them. The volunteers then pack the shoe boxes into one big box and put them on a truck to get ready for shipment.
I have volunteered at one of the drop-off locations and there are a couple of things that I have learned. It is best to pack using the shoe boxes that Operation Christmas Child provides. These boxes are meant to fit perfectly inside of a big packing box. The deliverers rely on there being 23 boxes inside one box so that all of the kids can get a gift of joy for Christmas. My mother and I used to try to find the biggest shoe box possible, but we then realized that we needed to use the provided boxes to help all of the kids get a box. The children that receive the least amount of gifts are the older children, so please consider choosing an older child for your box if you choose to donate.
How to Pack a Shoe box
- Find a shoe box- Start with an average sized cardboard box and if you choose to wrap it, wrap the lid and bottom separately
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2. Choose who your shoe box goes to- Decide whether you want to pack for a girl or a boy. Age categories: 2-4, 5-9, or 10-14.
3. Stuff your box- Select a big item such as a stuffed animal, and then fill with other things such as school supplies.
4. Pray- Pray blessings over your gift, pray for the child that receives the gift, and pray that it impacts their life in a huge way.
5. Track your box- Pay online and discover your shoe boxes’ destination. Make sure to print the label with the bar code and tape it to your box.
6. Drop-off- Drop off your box to one of the many drop-off locations on National Collection Week (November 12-19).
One of the people that we met got to go to one of the countries and had the privilege to pass out the boxes to the children. She has so many stories to tell and I would like to share some with you:
- When the kids got notebooks and pencils, they were waving them in the air and crying tears of joy.
- No longer are the boxes allowed to have toothpaste because when the children got toothpaste, they thought that it was food and they ate it.
- One little boy got a deflated soccer ball in his box and was kicking it around the grounds. So, if you send a deflated sport ball, please make sure to include a pump.
Another lady also went to visit one of the countries and pass out the boxes. In the country that she went to, almost all of the children had AIDS and they had never been touched by anyone before. The Operation Christmas Child workers showed her how she could touch them appropriately, so that she could show how AIDS is not contagious by touch and that it is alright to touch the children.
The great news is going to spread great joy millions of kids this holiday season. So many lives are going to be changed, and you could be a part of it! To get involved in Operation Christmas Child, go to https://www.samaritanspurse.org/what-we-do/operation-christmas-child/. Getting gets you nowhere, but giving can take you anywhere.