My last few posts have been a bit intense so today I wanted to share something lighter but something very important to me and my wife. I want to tell you about Operation Christmas Child.
Operation Christmas Child, a ministry of Samaritan's Purse, strives to "demonstrate God's love in a tangible way to needy children around the world, and together with the local church worldwide, to share the Good News of Jesus Christ."
You can be a part of this by doing something very simple...packing a shoe box. You take an empty shoe box or a small plastic container, determine whether your gift will be for a boy or a girl and the child’s age category, fill the box with a variety of gifts, and drop the box off.
Our church, Berea Baptist Church, collected 30 shoe boxes for OCC in 2009 and funded the shipping for all but 7 of those boxes. In 2010, we were able to up that number to 50 boxes. This year, we decided to collect an item each month to spread the expense over the year and we are on course to fill 100 shoe boxes this year. Last year 8 million children around the world received shoe boxes because of the efforts of individuals and groups from several nations
If you would like more information about OCC or how you can become involved, visit the Operation Christmas Child website or contact your local church to see if they support OCC, or if you prefer, you may support BBCJax in our efforts to fill shoe boxes.
My wife, Sarah, is currently collecting yarn to crochet small handmade stuff animals for the boxes. If you would like to help her in her efforts, please visit her blog at http://crochetbysarah.blogspot.com and leave a comment on her blog or email me. If you would like to more information about our collection efforts or how you can help, feel free to email me at jeff.rudd@bbcjax.net.
Most of all, pray for OCC and all of the children that will be blessed by a simple but powerful gift and find a way to become involved.
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