Operation Christmas Child

Operation Christmas Child, a division of Samaritan's Purse, is a world-wide organization that provides simple shoebox gifts to disadvantaged children around the world. These shoeboxes are filled with small toys, school supplies, personal hygiene items, clothing, hand tools and other useful things. Many of the children who receive these shoeboxes live in third-world countries, and may have never received a gift of any kind in their entire lives.

Along with the shoebox, each child is invited to participate in "The Greatest Journey", a 12-lesson discipleship program that teaches the child about Jesus, how to follow Him, and how to share Him with others. The program includes a workbook that helps the child follow along with the stories, memorize verses, and do activities in class or as homework. At the end of the program, there is a graduation celebration and each child is awarded a certificate and a special Bible in his own language. The Bible includes the New Testament, selected stories from the Old Testament, a dictionary of Biblical terms, and a map of Biblical lands. Often, through this program, entire families and communities are transformed by the power of the Gospel, and churches are started.

Since 2009, more than 17.4 million children have reportedly made decisions for Christ while taking "The Greatest Journey". And it all starts with a shoebox. What power there is in such a simple gift!!!

Jesus said, "Let the children come to me and do not stop them, because the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these." Matthew 19:14

One of our Outreach Projects is to fill shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child. Our goal/hope is to fill 12 shoeboxes for boys 10-14 years old. We chose boys of this age group because this is the category that receives the least amount of shoeboxes. We need a variety of items for these boxes, and the items must all fit together inside the shoebox. Please select items that will last for awhile; this may be the only gift these kids will ever receive. To avoid duplication, please sign up for specific items and then make purchases as you find sales. Click here for the list of Shoebox Suggestions.

PLEASE NOTE: Each shoebox can cost $40.00 to $60.00 or more to fill, depending on the items used. We also need $10.00 per shoebox to cover the shipping costs and $6.00 per shoebox to allow the shoebox recipient to participate in "The Greatest Journey" program. Let's try to distribute the cost of this project as evenly between us as possible. In addition to the items you contribute, if you would like to donate money towards the purchase of the more expensive items such as hand tools, please give your confidential donation to Debbie. Thank you.

Please remove all items from their original packaging, because . . .

More items can fit inside the shoebox
Many of the countries where these shoeboxes go have no real trash disposal systems, and we don't want to add to their "garbage"

Please buy items that will last. It may cost a little more, but remember, these kids may have never received any kind of gift ever, and how sad if something breaks right away. Do for them like you would for your own grandkids.