Operation Christmas Child

Samaritan's Purse ^ | November 10, 2003

[Hyacinth Bucket]

Operation Christmas Child
Fact Sheet

The World's Largest Children's Christmas Project of Kids-Helping-Kids

WHAT

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

[Hyacinth Bucket]

Hi Everybody.
Just wanted to let you know about a very good project benefitting needy children all over the world. Operation Christmas Child is such a neat project in that it provides a direct way to give a personal gift to a hurting child somewhere out there in far-away countries. This will be my fourth year donating shoebox gifts and it's been such a fun and rewarding experience. If you have any questions, just ask here or via freepmail. Hope you could join in packing a shoebox or two to bless these children. Let's bring smiles to their little faces this Christmas. Thanks, Friends.

Instructions for packing a shoebox (3 pages):
http://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.asp?section=Operation+Christmas+Child

[Think free or die]

Our sons have been decorating boxes at Sunday School. Next Sunday they'll be filling them up. This is a regular part of our church's Christmas celebration, and a very gratifying one.

[myprecious]

We have our family's boxes ready to fill. This is a great way to teach the kids the true joy of the holidays. In this material world, it is so easy for our young ones to forget the thrill of simple toys. These kids need socks, hairbows, balloons, post cards, a picture of you, a doll, a truck. It is a blessing to the child opening the box, as well as those filling it.

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.

[Hyacinth Bucket]

That's great! It's a very good and fun activity for kids to learn the meaning of giving at Christmas time. It would be interesting to know how many other freepers out there participate in this shoebox project.
Regards, HB

[Hyacinth Bucket]

It is a blessing to the child opening the box, as well as those filling it.

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.

[tapatio]

Our church does this every year.It is such a wonderful project

[Hyacinth Bucket]

Yes, it is a wonderful project. There was a posted article here on FR yesterday from the newspaper, The Guardian, which gave me the idea to post something about Operation Christmas Child. The article was actually a hit piece on Franklin Graham and this shoebox project. So typical of these liberal whiners.

[sljcookie]

Thank you for this post. I saw a table for Operation Christmas Child at Wal-Mart today, and I just walked on past it because I didn't know what it was.

[Littlejon]

As does ours. Our WMU (Women's Missionary Union for you non-Souhtern Baptists) also makes a trip to Charlotte to help process the packages each year. All church members who want to go are invited. I went a couple of years ago and was lucky enough to get to hear Franklin Graham speak at our session.

I would encourage everyone to participate in this endeavour. After seeing the warehouse and hearing the stories of the children it has helped, it really is worth it.

Here's another one I heard the other day: It was on the John Boy & Billy show on the radio. A couple of sisters from Russia, who I believe were about 8-10 years old, were adopted by an American couple. The older girl said when she was in Russia, she saw the truck one day and went up to get a package for her and her sister. She said she had been praying for a red scarf and gloves. When she opened her box, there was a red scarf and gloves. After they were adopted by this family, who had participated in OCC since it's inception, the older girl said she saw the OCC boxes waiting to be filled the first year they were with the family and told their new family the story of the gloves. The dad said it was confirmation that the packages they had been sending all those years were worth it.

Please help out with this cause, because it really does touch lives. I have seen it myself and, even though we are not rich, we give all we can to this project each year. We even make it a family affair for my two boys. It is a chance for us to "give something to the little boys and girls who don't have anything." as my 5 year old says.

It is worth the effort.

[FourPeas]

I was just packing my boxes tonight. Tomorrow my 3yo, 5yo and I go to finish getting stuff to fill them.

[Hyacinth Bucket]

I haven't done my shopping yet. Going to do it this weekend. Guess where I'm going. Walmart. As much as I hate that almost all of their stuff is made in China, this is for a good cause :)

[Hyacinth Bucket]

That's a neat story about the Russian girls. I found a similar story from this site:
http://www.gospelcom.net/mops/occ/index.shtml

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!

[Hyacinth Bucket]

Bless your little hearts! I knew there must be quite a few freepers out there who participate in this project.

[Hyacinth Bucket]

For those of you who would like to help but do not have the shopping sense ;) or just don't enjoy cutesy projects like these (I'm taking about all you handsome and generous male freepers out there.), money donations to cover shipping and transportation costs would be much appreciated.

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!

[Sasha152]

Hi!
I did a few boxes one year, and now my Church has been doing them a few years. In fact, I just "wrapped" six boxes tonight. Probably this week, the ladies group will get together to fill them, and that's the really fun part. It's really such a simple thing, and yet as you see in the photos, it brings so much joy, not only to the child who receives one, but to their parents as well.
It's a wonderful idea, and if anyone has never done any of these shoebox gifts, it's a great opportunity to reach out to children who would otherwise receive nothing.
(I love the part that I get to pick out little things for the boxes. So often organizations ask for money,(and that's ok); but this is more personal.)

[bootless]

I am so glad you posted this! Our church is participating, too, and I picked up two boxes. I told my son about it, and he's anxious to help someone. This is a great thing.

[bootless]

A ping to my FRiends about this wonderful gift to the poorest children...

[Hyacinth Bucket]

Thanks for pinging your Friends :)