Operation Christmas child
Every Fall our church participates in packing and collecting shoeboxes filled with practical and fun items along with a Gospel presentation to send to children around the world!
The mission of Operation Christmas Child is to demonstrate God’s love in a tangible way to children in need around the world. Through this project, Samaritan’s Purse partners with local church worldwide to share the Good News of Jesus Christ and make disciples of the nations.
Operation Christmas child 2024
Starting in the month of October, stop by our OCC table out in the courtyard to pick up a box to pack! The deadline to drop off a box at church is TBD in November.
How can you get involved?
Pack a shoebox with practical and fun items! You can do this on your own, with your family, or pack several boxes collectively with your community group! Pick up a box to pack from the OCC table in the courtyard.
OCC Packing Party. Join us for a packing party on October 16 at 6:00pm in Sundean Hall as we pack shoeboxes together. Click HERE for more information.
Sponsor a box. Each shoebox costs $10 to send around the world. We packed over 70 boxes at our packing party and need funds to cover a large number of boxes. Talk to Jeannette if you’d like to sponsor one of those boxes!
Build a box online. You can pack a box from the comfort of your home without having to set foot in a store. Let us know if you do this so we can add it to our count!
Pray over all our boxes!
If you have any questions or want to get involved, please reach out to Jeannette Lange, (831) 246-3171.
Helpful Links:
More about Operation Christmas Child and Samaritan’s Purse
In the summer of 1993, Samaritan’s Purse President Franklin Graham received a call from a man in England asking if he’d be willing to fill shoeboxes with gifts for children in war-torn Bosnia. Franklin agreed, but figured Christmas was months away. He forgot about the promise until he received a call back around Thanksgiving asking about the gifts.
Franklin asked his friend, the late Pastor Ross Rhoads of Calvary Church of Charlotte to see if he could help with the need. A Sunday shortly afterward, Pastor Rhoads demonstrated for his congregation how to fill a shoebox with simple gifts and encouraged them to include a letter to the child as well. Within weeks, the church had 11,000 shoeboxes lining their hallways.
Due to their generosity and additional gifts from Canada, Samaritan’s Purse sent 28,000 shoebox gifts to children in the Balkans that Christmas. Through these gifts, we communicated to children and their families what the angel said to the shepherds about Jesus’ birth: “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people”
(Luke 2:10, ESV).
Every year since, Samaritan’s Purse has collected shoebox gifts filled with toys, school supplies, and hygiene items for children around the world. Since 1993, more than 188 million children in more than 170 countries and territories have received an Operation Christmas Child shoebox. The project delivers not only the joy of what, for many kids, is their first gift ever, but also gives them a tangible expression of God’s love.
Tens of thousands of volunteers from local churches around the world partner with us to present the Gospel of Jesus Christ at festive outreach events where children are surprised with these shoe boxes.
Updated October 2024
All OCC photos courtesy of Samaritan’s Purse