ST. LOUIS—Right now, hundreds of North County children, families, businesses, and churches are joining thousands of volunteers across America to make a difference in the lives of 8 million hurting children this Christmas.
Children and families are wrapping and packing empty shoe boxes with simple items most people take for granted, including toothpaste, toys and school supplies. During National Collection Week, Nov. 15-22, they may drop off their shoe box gifts at one of 11 drop off sites in metropolitan St. Louis. Operation Christmas Child will then use whatever means necessary—sea containers, trucks, trains, airplanes, helicopters, boats, elephants—to hand-deliver the gifts to hurting children in more than 100 countries.
Parker Road Baptist Church, Florissant, is one of the collection points. The church is located at 2675 Parker Road, with a (314) 831-6671 phone number. Collection times vary from day to day.
Operation Christmas Child, a project of international Christian relief and evangelism organization Samaritan’s Purse, is the world’s largest Christmas project. Since 1993, Operation Christmas Child has collected more than 77 million shoe box gifts and hand-delivered them to needy children in more than 130 countries.
It’s the power of a simple gift that allows Operation Christmas Child to transcend all barriers—language, cultural, religious, geographical and political—with a message of hope and love. For many of these children, the simple shoe box will be the first gift they have ever received.
Samaritan’s Purse uses tracking technology that allows donors to “follow your box” to the destination country where it will be hand-delivered to a child in need. Using the EZ Give donation form found at www.samaritanspurse.org, families can register their boxes and find out where in the world their box brought joy to a child.
For more information on how to participate in Operation Christmas Child or to find the nearest drop-off site, visit www.samaritanspurse.org.
BY STAFF