There are only three more weeks until collection week (Nov. 12-19) for Samaritan’s Purse Operation Christmas Child project. If you have not started collecting gifts, school supplies, and toiletries, it is not too late to begin. But get started soon! Find a drop off location close to you in these four countries: USA, Australia, UK, Canada.
What difference can a shoe box filled with a t-shirt, a toothbrush and some school supplies really make?
The children who get these boxes are poor. And they are still poor after they get this gift.
Operation Christmas Child is about far more than just the gifts. It is about eternal gifts — the gift of salvation.
Local churches and ministry partners who distribute the shoe boxes give children a copy of The Greatest Gift of All, a booklet that explains the good news of Jesus. Of course, the booklets are in the native language of the recipients. Then there is follow up using The Greatest Journey, a discipleship program for children.
To give children presents is a nice humanitarian gesture. To tell them how to have a relationship with the Creator is true evangelism. And that is what Samaritan’s Purse does through Operation Christmas Child. The shoe boxes are an avenue to to the greater work of sharing about Jesus.
You can provide an inroad for a local church or missionary to share the gospel when you pack a shoe box. It’s so much more than just a toothbrush and a new t-shirt.
Disclosure
As a member of iHomeschool Network’s Samaritan’s Purse Blogger Team, I write about the ministry on a volunteer basis. All posts are my own thoughts and do not necessarily reflect the views of Samaritan’s Purse. I am not an employee, agent, or contractor of Samaritan’s Purse. For official information, please see the Samaritan’s Purse website.
More Posts Like This One:
- Starting My Operation Christmas Child Boxes
- Merry Christmas
- Christmas Chinese Style #2
- Tatterdemalion
Hi and welcome! I'm Jimmie and this is my online collage of our Charlotte Mason homeschool. Taking just a little more time to document our learning shortens the learning curve for other busy homeschool moms.
Feel free to browse around my posts and freebies. My aim is to bless each reader with something useful. 
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Twitter: samaritanspurse
October 23, 2012 at 8:41 am
This is so true, Jimmie. Through these shoe boxes, we can establish relationships within these communities and the local church to impact them with the Gospel in unprecedented ways.
I truly understand the importance of having tangible ways to reach lost communities. That is why I make my shoe boxes. It’s about so much more than the gifts inside.
Jimmie Lanley recently posted Three Weeks Until OCC Collection Week.
Great post Jimmie!!!
I only recently discovered that there was a difference between Operation Christmas Child in the UK and elsewhere – that difference being the level of overt evangelism involved. Perhaps it says something about the British approach to faith that the faith aspect is downplayed a lot more in the marketing and approach to the boxes. The FAQs on the UK website say “We have never put Christian literature into shoeboxes before they are shipped, nor do we ever intend to do so” and also “A local church or Christian partner distributing the shoeboxes may issue a free copy of a Christian booklet, The Greatest Gift, which contains Bible stories, including an explanation of the true meaning of Christmas. No-one is obliged to take this booklet”. I don’t think there is any kind of follow-up programme either. Personally I think the boxes are a wonderful, concrete example of God’s love and it is part of our duty as Christians to share what we have with others who have less. I admit I’m uncomfortable with the idea that children who are, for example, Muslim or Jewish might be given a booklet that suggests the gift is somehow contingent on being Christian – children aren’t always able to understand the nuances of meaning and it would be wrong for this wonderful charity to be the cause of strife within a family. It is difficult for me to make up my mind, but on balance I still think that the appeal is a valuable thing to do and I am glad it is so popular. I hope I haven’t offended anyone by this ridiculously long comment! OCC seems to have been the subject of a lot of blog attention lately.
May recently posted A Basket of Apples.
Hi, May. I appreciate your comment.
I don’t think that evangelism materials are included inside the boxes but are distributed at the same time. The gift would never be contingent on being a Christian. (That would be terrible and defeat much of the purpose of the project.)
But if all we gave these children was a toothbrush and a toy car and never told them about Jesus, it would be a waste. A tragic waste. Man’s greatest need is not money, education, or Christmas gifts. It is salvation. The shoeboxes are a concrete example of love that opens the door to a greater message of love.