By Nicole G.
Some may feel August is a bit early to be thinking of Christmas, but it is never too early to prepare for Operation Christmas Child boxes. Operation Christmas Child is a ministry through Samaritan’s Purse, which shares the Gospel of Jesus Christ with boys and girls around the world through these Christmas boxes. Our congregation has been packing boxes for this wonderful ministry for a few years now.
This year I am excited to let you know we have even more ways to help pack boxes than before. We will have boxes available to pack yourselves or as a family in late October. Once again, we have an online packing page. You can access the page by visiting Build A Shoebox Online (samaritanspurse.org). Online boxes are packed by OCC specifically for countries with stricter customs codes, so even more children can receive a box. New this year, I will be asking for item donations for the months of August, September, and October. Faith’s youth will pack boxes using these donations.
August’s item donation is school supplies. Take advantage of all the back-to-school sales out there. We are looking for crayons, pencils, pens, small notebooks, erasers, highlighters, glue sticks, colored pencils, etc. Remember, everything we pack needs to fit into a shoebox, so nothing too big.
With all of these different ways to participate in this ministry, I have set our goal at 100 boxes.