Operation Christmas Child

Its that time of year again!  Its shoebox week!  We love the Operation Christmas Child ministry of Franklin Graham (Billy Grahams son).  This is an opportunity for individuals, families, or groups to participate in a ministry which will impact millions of children worldwide, and do it from the comfort of their own homes.  OCC's goal this year it to collect and distribute 8,000,000 (million) shoebox gifts through churches and schools here in the US and worldwide.  Last year we were able to track some of our boxes and found out some were shipped to Chad & some to Honduras. 

This year, our family goal was to spend $XX amount of money every month to buy shoebox stuffers.  We had a great time every single month going to the Dollar store, clearance bins at Walmart, etc to find goodies.  We even hit a clearance at Kroger and got packs of those little rubbery, Silly Band bracelets for .25 a pack.  We used our coupons to get "free" toothpaste at the grocery store, also.

Our shoeboxes are stuffed with combs/brushes, hair bands, crayons, pencils, sharpeners, pads or coloring books, socks, flip flops, toothbrushes and toothpaste.  Then for each age group, boy or girl, we specialized the little toys - sewing kits, hot wheels cars, dolls, stuffed animals, blocks, tote bags, bead kits, stickers, card games, etc. 

We spent an afternoon sorting our year long collected gifts.  We had to buy some extra stuff to fill in, here and there.  We had a wonderful time doing this and prayed for the children and their families that will recieve these boxes.  This afternoon, we will be volunteering at a local church's Relay Center checking, sorting, and crating up boxes to head to the distribution center in Atlanta.  We did this last year and in a 3 hour period processed over 800 boxes (if I remember correctly).

Here are a few pictures of Amy & Will at work.....

Over the years, we've perfected the stuffing (or cramming) our gifts into these boxes.  We've started using plastic shoeboxes for several reasons - you can fit more in them than a regular box, the children will have a plastic box that will last longer than cardboard, and wrapping shoeboxes isn't easy.  Its lots of fun, great for all ages, a perfect way to get "into missions", a great witness to your children about giving to others, a tangible way to impact a child for Christ.