Monday, October 21, 2013

Samaritan’s Purse: Operation Christmas Child

The Gift of a Shoebox

Over Thanksgiving holiday, “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas” will have an entirely different connotation in America.  People will hustle and bustle in frenzied mad dashes to the best deals for the must have desired Christmas gifts.  I grin knowing my Christmas shopping will be completed.  Thanksgiving Day I will usher in the holiday season with a cup of hot cocoa, Miracle of 32nd Street and recipes of sweet indulgences awaiting creation in the upcoming season.  Or is that the recipients in anticipation?  Having prayed over each heart filled shoebox and the child God will lead it to, I thank the Lord for giving me the means to send gifts to His precious children somewhere in the world.  Like a child in wonder of wrapped presents under the tree, I will anxiously await the email revealing the location my shoebox gifts are destined for.
 
 
I first learned of Operation Christmas Child five years ago I when I happen across an article sharing a remarkable story of inspiration.  Eight year old Evilyn Pinnow desired for a way to help the poor and had heard about Operation Christmas Child.  She began a shoebox club that today has over 80 children meeting monthly to fill shoeboxes.  The club has grown from the first one hundred boxes filling her parent's garage and now meets at her home church.  I cherished the thought of filling shoeboxes with gifts that would travel to a child around the world.  It has become a ministry for me, one I can work on year round, that I have long hoped to share with others. 

What a rewarding sense of holiday spirit gathering together to pack surprises, treats and supplies for children all over the world.  Children color beautiful pictures and write letters that introduce who they are, where they are from and end with precious wishes of good will.  One year I was astonished as my gifts were part of the first time delivery to children in Iran!  Several years ago I was shopping for a toy to place in each box and thought, “School supplies?  Who wants school supplies for Christmas?”  I was greatly humbled as I watched video clips from children whom just received their Christmas Shoebox.  Over and over again, joyful faces spoke with utmost appreciation for pencils, paper and reusable lunch bags, items I take for granted.  Needless to say, once the stores began the back to school sales and teacher appreciation week rolled around, I purchased and collected just about every school supply I could think of and was blessed with four solar calculators to include in the older children’s boxes!
 
 This year’s National Collection Week is November 18-25.  I so desire to extend an invitation to all interested in joining me at my home for “Good News, Great Joy” packing party.  I will be packing my shoeboxes Saturday November 16 beginning at 10 AM.  Anyone and everyone is invited to come over and join me as I listen to Christmas music, craft cards, write letters, enjoy tasty treats and pack shoeboxes full of fun and needed gifts.   Bring a favorite snack to share, Christmas CD, shoeboxes and all your items to pack.  I will also have a table set up with many supplies for children to write letters or make Christmas cards to include in to shoeboxes.  You can also include a photo of your family and provide an address.  The child receiving your gift may write back to you.  If you’ve never filled shoeboxes, to get started, decide on whether you want to fill a shoebox for a girl or boy and then choose an age category:
 

2 – 4 years              5 – 9 years               10 – 14 years
 
Here are a few suggested items:

            Toys:  stuffed animals, cars and trucks, dolls, yo-yo’s, harmonicas, jump ropes, blocks, balls, travel size magna doodle or etch-a-sketch, slinky

            School Supplies: solar calculators, pens, pencils and sharpener, markers, writing pads of paper, crayons, drawstring fabric backpack, ruler, protractor, reusable lunch bag

            Hygiene Items:  toothbrushes, mild bar soap (in a plastic bag), comb/brush, washcloth, toothpaste, tissues 
(Dentists are great resources and very willing to donate toothbrush/toothpaste!) 

            Other:  socks, ball caps, sunglasses, hair clips, toy jewelry, watches, flashlights (with extra batteries), books, coloring books, hard candy/gum (must be in original package and doubled bagged in Ziploc).

Note: No war related toys, politically themed items, used items, chocolate or out of date candy, liquids or lotions, medication or vitamins, aerosol, breakable items or glass.

Target sells standard plastic shoeboxes for under $1.  This becomes a gift in itself as the child will have something durable to keep his or her treasures in or use for storage.

If you are unable to join us I will collect items to fill shoeboxes or filled shoeboxes and transport them to a local drop-off location.  Use the link below under "To Learn More About" to make your donation for shipping and to print labels identifying the gender and age group appropriate for the gift.   If you would like to sponsor shoebox(es), it costs $7 to ship an individual box.  If you made your donation online you will receive an email sharing the destination of your sponsored box.  Just download the label and send it in an email attachment to be printed and placed in your sponsored shoebox(es).
 



You can also create a shoebox as a family or have your own packing party!  It is a great deal of fun and wonderful reminder Christmas is about giving and God's greatest gift of all!




PRAY, CONSIDER, RECEIVE, SHARE 
    Please PRAY for children in situations with nothing to call their own, who have little to take their minds off the poverty, disease, famine and/or war surrounding them with the absence of reminders they are loved.  Children like Alex Nsengimana of Rwanda who received his first shoebox in an orphanage after the horrific genocide in 1994.  Recipients of Christmas shoeboxes have the opportunity to participate in the follow-up program, The Greatest Journey, partnered through Operation Christmas Child with their local church.  Alex like hundreds of other children found hope in Jesus Christ through a Christmas shoebox gift and Christ Himself through The Greatest Journey.  As Operation Christmas Child marks its 20th anniversary stories like Alex’s can be heard world-wide.  Chronicles of how an unadorned shoebox gift touched their lives and as adults the joy they now experience as pastors or missionaries, often in their own villages, when they pass out Christmas shoeboxes to the next generation or teach The Greatest Journey program.  PRAY for the children who will be receiving Christmas shoebox gifts this season.  That each gift ministers to each specific child and brings a lasting sense of hope and God’s love for them.  People need Jesus to guide them to a loving God who is the only One who can protect the essence of self, their soul.  Jesus is the Way, the Truth and Life.  Only He can reconcile our hearts back to God.  Seek the Way.  Learn of Truth.  Choose Life.  May we all not just believe in Jesus, but believe Him.  Please PRAY for those delivering Christmas shoeboxes through the underground churches, regions where believers are being persecuted and areas of war.   
     Please CONSIDER giving, through donations, packing a shoebox or volunteer service, to Operation Christmas Child and/or locally within your own community programs providing Christmas gifts and hope to children of our military, those with incarcerated parents or are homeless.  Guidance Counselors, social workers, etc. often have names of children and teens you can sponsor for the Christmas holiday.  Below are links to websites where you can learn more about Samaritan’s Purse’s Operation Christmas Child.
     RECEIVE the Lord's eternal blessing for your partnership in whichever manner He guides you in. 
     Please SHARE this blog with anyone you know who is interested in supporting and/or partnering in missions work, locally or globally. 


PRAYER REQUESTS

Children surviving in the midst of war

Children displaced in homeless shelters, missions or orphaned

Children whose parents are incarcerated or unable to provide for them

Recipients of Christmas shoebox gifts

The message of Christ’s birth be focal this holiday season

Continue to pray for the ministries of Samaritan's Heart, Vive Talamanca, Pearl Process and the La Carpio church in San Jose, Costa Rica  (see previous blogs August-October)



TO WATCH A STORY OF REDEMPTION THROUGH A SHOEBOX

A Gift for Prakash
Go to:  http://www.samaritanspurse.org/article/a-gift-for-prakash/

The Hands of the Toymaker
Go to:  http://www.samaritanspurse.org/article/the-hands-of-the-toymaker/

A Gift of Forgiveness in Rwanda
Go to:  http://www.samaritanspurse.org/operation-christmas-child/alex-story/


TO LEARN MORE ABOUT


To donate OM Costa Rica or a partner ministry of OM Costa Rica (English) -  


             Note:  In the additional information comment box type: “Donation for OM Costa Rica                                                                                               field #14500, specify the missionary, ministry project or sponsor child
  

 

No comments:

Post a Comment