A.B.Barber
National Collection Week is Nov. 13-20. Pick up instructions and boxes for filling in the New Community foyer.
Goal this year is 250 boxes
Last day to bring in boxes to the meeting house will be Nov. 19, but feel free to bring them in any time before that as well
Cardboard shoeboxes, labels, and how-to-pack a shoebox pamphlets are available at the OCC table in the foyer
The OCC table is covered in ideas of things you can pack in your shoeboxes
Contact Amy Stover or Amy Barber if you have questions
Can you believe it? It’s time to collect shoeboxes again for Samaritan’s Purse Operation Christmas Child! We hope that you will join us in participating in one of the most beautiful opportunities to share the Good News of Jesus with children around the world!
This past September Amy Stover and I had the opportunity to attend a seminar about Operation Christmas Child. It covered many of the standard topics like how to pack a shoebox, what to put in it, what not to put in it, how to have a packing party, etc. We also learned that the Dayton area goal for 2023 is to collect 30,000 boxes!!
They also discussed the most important things that go into a shoebox: The Gospel and prayer!
These boxes are SO much more than a shoebox packed with presents, toys, school supplies, and hygiene items. Samaritan’s Purse often refers to them as GO boxes - Gospel Opportunity boxes. Each shoebox is an opportunity for the Gospel to reach a child, for a life to be changed forever, and a soul to be saved.
Before the children open their boxes, they gather at the local church hosting the event and hear the Gospel preached. Then the boxes are handed out. They often count to three and then all the children open their boxes together! Inside each box are the items we pack, but in addition to those gifts, there is a booklet in their language called “The Greatest Gift.” It has the message of the Gospel told in 11 Scripture stories explaining salvation. The children take these booklets home and share them with their families and friends.
After this event many children return for a discipleship class called “The Greatest Journey”. This is a 12-lesson course that includes Bible stories, Scripture memory, and they learn how to daily follow Christ. And it all starts with a simple shoebox!
This is one of the most beautiful, exciting, and fun ways to serve Christ and go into all the world! Whether you pack a GO box by yourself, with your family, or with your house church make sure you pray over your box! Franklin Graham says, “The most important item in the boxes are your prayers.”
Pray that these children will feel the love of Christ in a turbulent world, that they will experience true hope, and most of all - that they will accept Jesus as their Lord and receive the Greatest gift of all - eternal life! Pray that they will share this good news with their families and friends. Pray for the items you send - over and over again there are testimonies about how the child had longed for something, a towel, a flashlight, a doll, and when they opened their box there it was! The gifts point upward to our beautiful God who knows their needs and loves them.
These GO boxes are small but mighty. They carry the most valuable gift a child can EVER receive. So pack your boxes with joy, with thought, with love, with prayers, with hand written notes from you, and know that whoever opens them on the other side of the world will get to hear about our precious Lord Jesus and His great love for them…
“Declare His glory among the nations!” Psalm 96:3