The world’s largest Christmas project of its kind, Operation Christmas Child, uses gift-filled shoeboxes to demonstrate God’s love in a tangible way to needy children around the world. Every church I’ve served in has used Christmas as a chance to serve their community and give back – and this is a GREAT way to do just that this year in your youth group … or better yet, get your whole church involved! Since 1993, the Samaritan’s Purse project Operation Christmas Child has collected and delivered more than 113 million gift-filled shoeboxes to children in over 150 countries. And they’re off to a strong start already in 2014, hoping to collect enough shoebox gifts to reach another 10 million children.
If you don’t know how it works shoeboxes filled with gifts and the gospel are collected in the United States (and many other countries) then uses thousands of volunteers in the collecting, shipping and distributing shoebox gifts. We’ve used them for years at our church (Saddleback) and even have our high school Life Groups help with the processing of the boxes in the past at a regional center. Such powerful, tangible ministry for students!
Well, if you want to do this soon you should jump on it – go to samaritanspurse.org and click on Operation Christmas Child to get the scoop on your youth ministry getting involved. It won’t be long until National Collection Week (November 17-24) where the team from Samaritan’s Purse will collect the gift-filled shoeboxes. My kids love it every year in our home, our students loved this project in the past, and it makes a HUGE impact for Christ. Join in on the fun!
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