Operation Christmas Child Links

Children to Children World Wide

By Jim Day

Over the years and through numerous tragedies and disasters, a simple shoe box has brought hope and healing to the broken hearts of millions of children. Operation Christmas Child is simple, but its impact is felt throughout the world—not only by the 45 million hurting children in 120 countries suffering from disease, war, terrorism, natural disaster, and famine who have received shoe boxes, but by the millions of generous children who have carefully and thoughtfully put their shoe box gifts together.

Based on the principle of “kids helping kids,” the project uses shoe boxes to encourage U.S. kids to look beyond their own toy wish list to the needy children around the world, many of whom have never received a gift in their life. Each shoe box is as unique as the child or family who packs it. Typical boxes include toys, school supplies, hygiene items, and a personal note and photo. Each box is packed for a boy or girl in one of three age ranges: 2-4, 5-9, or 10-14.
The main goal of Operation Christmas Child is to reach out to children living in hopeless situations with God’s love by giving them a shoe box gift along with the greatest gift of all, a children’s booklet that shares the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The gift shows them in a tangible way that someone thousands of miles away cares about them. But, more importantly, they learn that they have a heavenly Father who loves them and desires to give them the hope and promise of eternal life with Him.
St Louis and Illinois area churches, schools and families have embraced Operation Christmas Child as an effective missions/service project that helps teach children the value and joy in giving to those less fortunate. Last year over 40,000 shoe box gifts were collected from St. Louis and surrounding communities during the National Collection Week in November. Over 4.5 million shoe boxes were collected in the U.S. and over 7.6 million internationally which were shipped to children in over 90 countries.

For those not familiar with Operation Christmas Child, Operation Christmas Child is an outreach of Samaritans Purse which is one of the many ministries of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association headed by Franklin Graham.

This year the National Collection Week is November 13-20. To find out how you, your family, church, ministry, school or small group can get involved in Operation Christmas Child call 1-800-501-2716 in Missouri and 1-800-665-3318 in Illinois. To order materials (boy and girl labels) call 1-800-353-5949. For local drop-off points in the Greater St. Louis Metro area, please visit the web site for Samaritans Purse at www.samaritanspurse.org.