Operation Christmas Child

One of our family Christmas traditions has been and is to help someone in need. Some do the Angel Tree, some donate to their favorite charity, and some physically work in the "Soup Kitchen" serving the homeless. Our family participates in the "Operation Christmas Child". This is our third year in a row that we have participated in it. I LOVE THIS for so many reason.

1. It helps someone in need.

2. The entire family gets involved in picking out special gifts for the receiver.

3. The gift is delivered in the name of Jesus Christ.

4. It teaches our children the beauty of giving to others.

We did this a few weeks back and I am just now posting about it.

It's a simple concept... You are given these tags. You choose the sex and age of the child you desire to buy for and you fill a box with all kinds of goodies. This year we chose to bless 2 boys. We picked the 10-14 year olds. Apparently, this age is not chosen as quickly as the younger children. If they run out of stuffed shoe boxes for the 10-14 year olds, this age range receives a box that is not age appropriate.

Here, Darren, Tyson, Lilah and Jaxon are featured heading into Wal-mart with the empty shoe boxes in hand. Tyson was so excited. It's great that he gets involved. I think it was a BIG eye opener when I told him that the boys we were giving these shoe boxes to would ONLY be receiving what was in the box for Christmas and that's it. His reply was, "Well I think we should do like 20 boxes then." So sweet.
Our first stop, in Wal-mart, was to the clothing section. Tyson had a blast picking out two batman shirts for the boys. Other items included, socks, underwear, a football, balloons, candy, markers, a bar of soap, stop watch, neon glow sticks AND more.... You'd be amazed how much you can fit in such a small box.
We went to Wal-mart and the Dollar Tree to fill these boxes. We picked out all kinds of fun things that boys between the ages of 10-14 would love to have.
We were certain to include some spiritual items for the boys. In each box we gave them some bible trivia cards. We hope there isn't a language barrier and that they can use these cards to somehow know of Jesus Christ. We would have put a Bible in the box, but we were told that customs would remove it. We are so blessed to be able to read our Bible without suffering in extreme measures. We also put a personalized letter as well as a picture of each of us in the box. We thought it would be nice for the receiver to know who sent the box to them.
Our church collected MOUNDS AND MOUNDS of shoe boxes. This ROADWAY truck held a portion of the boxes. If I recall correctly, we had at least 2 of these trailers, if not three of them FILLED to the brim with stuffed shoe boxes. Our Church was a drop off location for shoe boxes.