Every year churches around our nation become a part of Samaritan’s Purse “Operation Christmas Child”. We take a shoebox and fill it with all kinds of gifts that might bless the life of a child stateside or global. We look for small yet “wow” gifts. Soccer balls and pumps, dolls, clothes, hair ties, toiletries, games, flashlights, the list is endless. Then we put in a small personal letter and a picture of ourselves or family.

At First Baptist Church in Wellman, we have been filling these shoeboxes knowing that they will bring joy to the children receiving them. This year we chose Operation Christmas Child as our Mission Project. We used our VBS offerings to begin filling boxes. The children filled 24 during VBS and we were able to fill 40 more after VBS. Then our church family filled many more and we finished the project with a total of 153 boxes. The postage was $1,530 which we raised by collecting “pocket change” during church for 12 weeks total.

On Thursday, Nov. 30, a van load of 15 took off for Aurora, Illinois to spend time working in a Samaritan’s Purse warehouse where over 15,000 boxes were inspected and approved for shipping. That site had already processed over 150,000 boxes up to that date.

The shoeboxes are only part of the gift the children will receive. They will be invited to a 10-week study to learn about God and His love for them and about Jesus coming into the world as a baby at Christmas. They will hear how Jesus died on the cross to be our Savior. The impact of a shoebox gift cannot be measured -- it has the potential to change lives and effect generations. That is the power of the Gospel message of Jesus Christ.