Operation Christmas Child: A Little Box and a Big Heart

Over the years we have participated in Operation Christmas Child, through Samaritan’s Purse, many times. I enjoy their program and what they do, they have a good mission. My children enjoy participating because this ministry is a little more tangible for them than some others, packing a box for a child their own age. And I enjoy watching them open their hearts wide as they fill the box as full as they can because they want to bless the child as much as possible.

This is why I am so pleased to announce that I’ve joined a team of bloggers to support and promote Samaritan’s Purse and Operation Christmas Child. We’re here to encourage, inspire and help. We’re brainstorming ideas, we’re asking questions, and we’re hoping to introduce to the Operation Christmas Child to those who aren’t familiar with it.

From now until the National Collection Week in November, our team will be sharing pictures and ideas for the shoeboxes. But here’s the best part – you can, too! There will be a joint link up on all of our blog posts (any posts that I or anyone on the team writes will have the same, ongoing, ever-expanding, OCC link up at the bottom.) If you’re writing a post about Operation Christmas Child and packing shoeboxes, you can join in this massive link up that we’re calling “Operation Christmas Child: From Start to Finish.”

This year, for the first time ever, I’ve decided to take our OCC involvement a step further and I’m organizing a shoebox roundup through our ladies’ ministry at church! This is totally new for me, and a little out of my comfort zone, but the ladies have just rallied around me and are excited and supportive. I can’t wait to see what God does through our ladies’ ministry at church!

Over the next few weeks I’ll be sharing updates on our shoebox drive, and maybe some tips about how to do it if you want to (though, I’m new at this so bear with me!) I’ll also be sharing some of the great ideas our ladies come up with as we work on this project, and suggestions for what to pack in boxes, how to pack the box, and how to find a drop off location near you.

For now, I’m going to leave you with this: If organizing a collection at your church is something you think you’d like to do–

1. Pray. Ask God if this is what he wants you to do and to help you do it if He does.
2. Look up the closest drop off location to determine if you’d be able to take your boxes somewhere in person or if you’d need to mail them in.
3. Ask your women’s ministry (if you have one) if you can take on this project and implement it. If not, skip to step 3.
4. Talk to your pastor to see if he is on board with you promoting the roundup in church, posting on the bulletin board, setting up a collection area and all the other things involved. Also, consider asking the person in charge of the budget if the church would be able to assist with making up the difference for the $7.00 that we need to put inside of the boxes if some of the boxes don’t have it (and with mailing the boxes in if you end up needing to mail them.)

I’ll be sharing more next week. Until then, God bless!

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Writing about your Operation Christmas Child Boxes? Link up your post below. Note: All the linkups on all my OCC posts use the same code, it’s the same list. You only have to add one post on one post, you don’t have to go back to the old posts. You can link  up as many OCC posts as you write! And if you Tweet, remember to use the hashtag #OCCboxes! Thanks!

Official wordage: 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.