Posted on 11/10/2003 6:13:43 PM PST by Hyacinth Bucket
The World's Largest Children's Christmas Project of Kids-Helping-Kids
Some 7 million suffering children in more than 100 countries on six continents will receive personal, gift-filled shoe boxes through this kids-helping-kids project. For many of these children, the gift will be the first present they have ever received.
WHEN
Now through Christmas 2003...
Kids, families, scout troops, schools, churches, civic clubs, and businesses are filling their shoe boxes now.
Shoe box gifts can be dropped off at one of more than 1,300 drop sites located in all 50 states.
To find the nearest location, call (800) 353-5949, or visit http://www.samaritanspurse.org/.
Official shoe box collection week is Nov. 17-24.
(After Nov. 24, shoe boxes should be mailed to Samaritan's Purse: P.O. Box 3000, 801 Bamboo Road, Boone, N.C. 28607.)
WHO
Millions of kids...
Families, schools, churches, scout troops, civic clubs, and other organizations in thousands of cities in all 50 states and nine additional countries will fill some 7 million shoe boxes with personal gifts, school supplies, candy, necessity items, family photos, and notes of encouragement.
More than 75,000 volunteers worldwide
36,000 volunteers in the United States
WHERE
It's a global thing...
The shoe boxes will be filled and donated by millions of people in 10 countries: United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, the Netherlands, Germany, Ireland, Austria, Switzerland, and Finland.
Samaritan's Purse staff and partners will hand-deliver the shoe box gifts to some 7 million children in more than 100 countries including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Jordan, and Sudan.
HOW
By land, by air, by sea, by camel...
The shoe box gifts are processed in 7 major centers across the United States: Boone, N.C.; Charlotte, N.C.; Minneapolis, Minn.; Atlanta, Ga.; Denver, Colo.; Santa Ana, Calif.; Soldotna, Alaska. After processing, the shoe boxes are loaded onto some of the world's largest cargo planes, trucks, and sea containers bound for the far reaches of the earth.
Once the boxes are transported to some 100 countries around the world, Samaritan's Purse representatives and national partners collect them and travel by truck, bus, train, helicopter, boat, foot, dog sled, mule, and even camel to hand-deliver the gifts, along with colorful children's books of the Christmas story.
HISTORY
Growing Fast!
Since 1993, Operation Christmas Child has collected more than 24 million shoe boxes valued at more than $480 million, and hand-delivered them to needy children in 120 countries.
** Every U.S. president since Ronald Reagan has packed an Operation Christmas Child shoe box gift.
Operation Christmas Child is a project of international Christian relief organization Samaritan's Purse, named the most efficiently run religious charity in America by SmartMoney magazine (2000, 2001, 2002).
Headed by Franklin Graham, Samaritan's Purse is currently working in 100 countries, including Afghanistan, where after the fall of the Taliban, the organization established a hospital, rebuilt several schools, and helped build hundreds of homes. Samaritan's Purse is also working in numerous countries devastated by HIV/AIDS, to help bring relief, education and hope to the victims and orphans of the pandemic.
Photo: Afghanistan
Photo: Sudan
Photo: Cambodia
Photo: Tajikistan
Photo: Uganda
Photo: Papua New Guinea
Photo: Unknown Location
Link to see more pictures (pdf format):http://www.samaritanspurse.org/occ/report/OCC_SR_2002.pdf
Instructions for packing a shoebox (3 pages):
http://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.asp?section=Operation+Christmas+Child
Operation Christmas Child was on the ground in Afganistan before almost any relief agency. This is how you win the hearts and minds of a nation love their kids!
Thank you for posting this wonderful reminder.
I agree wholeheartedly. And yes, Samaritan's Purse is one of the best-run Christian organizations out there. They do very good work with monies donated to them.
Following are three true stories that show how a simple shoe box, packed by a child or family in America, can be a source of Christmas joy for a child half a world away.Batyr is 10 years old and lives in Kyrgyzstan. For a long time he prayed for a watch because he never had one. He even began saving what little money he had to buy one. Batyr received a watch in his shoe box gift last year and said, "God loves me so much that when we have been distributed the gifts He gave me it. Thank you that Lord put desire into your heart to bless us. Now I have the watch I prayed for. I know that if I'll ask Jesus for anything, He will give it to me. Glory to Jesus!"
Nine-year-old Sveta from Russia writes, "I have dreamed all my life about a doll with long black hair. We knew that someone was going to bring presents to our orphanage, but I could not even begin to think that in that present I would see what I wanted! I told myself; Lord, all that will be there I will accept with great joy and excitement and be thankful and will try not to sneak a peek early. And then when I opened my gift box I saw a doll! Can you believe that she had long black hair! I believe that I was at that moment the happiest person in the world! I am so thankful to God that he loves me so much and takes care of me."
A little girl living in an orphanage in Kazakstan received a shoe box full of gifts along with the other children in the orphanage. When she received the gift, she was happy, but she confided in her house-mother, "I appreciate the gift, but what I really need is parents". This Christian care-giver simply replied "Well, just pray and ask God for parents." When the girl opened her shoe box, along with the wonderful assortment of gifts there was a card and a photo from the family who gave the box - a couple with no children. She prayed, and then wrote to the couple - thanking them for the gifts and explaining her circumstance and how she was praying to God for parents. The American couple, so touched by this little girl, found their way to her village in Kazakhstan to meet her. They ended up adopting the little girl. But that's not the end to the miracle in this shoe box...their miracle so touched other childless couples they knew, that several other families went to the same orphanage and adopted children!
You may donate online:
http://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.asp?section=Giving
Or send a check to:
Samaritan's Purse
Operation Christmas Child
P.O. Box 3000
Boone, NC 28607
Phone (828) 262-1980
or 1(800)353-5949
Thank you so much!
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