What I'm referring to is packing a shoebox for Operation Christmas Child. If you're unfamiliar with Operation Christmas Child, you can go here for more info about it. It's a program that happens every year sponsored by the Samaritan's Purse Internationl Relief Organization. They encourage everyone to pack a shoebox with toys, hygiene items, school supplies and more for a child in a 3rd world country. At it's basic element, OCC is a program that gives a Christmas box to needy children. But OCC is so much more than that. OCC not only gives material gifts, they also give the gift of truth. You see, OCC includes a copy of the Gospel translated into the language of the children receiving the shoebox with each gift. They send volunteers who share the Gospel with these children and they receive the eternal gift of Jesus Christ while relishing in the joy of their material shoebox gift.
Today starts the beginning of National Shoebox Collection week for this project. I would like to encourage all of my blog readers to, if possible, fill a shoebox for this amazing project. You can go the OCC website (linked above) to find instructions for filling the shoebox, to find shoebox drop off locations and you can even print out your label and track it to see where your shoebox goes all over the world!
We just did this yesterday! We did 2 boxes (1 for a boy the same age as our son, the other for a girl the same age as our daughter) and let our kids pick stuff to put in them. My son helped pack the boxes too. We saw lots of families at Target and the dollar store doing the same thing:) We're excited because this year we printed our labels online and we'll get an email telling us where our boxes went!
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