11,000 Filled Operation Christmas Child Shoeboxes Leave Bridgeport Today
By Julie Perine on November 25, 2013 via Connect-Bridgeport.com
At 3 p.m. today, a semi loaded with more than 11,000 Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes will leave Fellowship Bible Church in Bridgeport and get on the road to a processing center in Boone, NC.
If your church or organization - or you personally – filled a box with toys, gifts and personal care items, you were part of this tremendous effort.
About 2,400 boxes were assembled at the church at a “store” set up with everything from crayons and coloring books to stuffed animals, dolls and toothbrushes. Volunteers were still busy Saturday stuffing the boxes.
“The rest of the boxes were provided by all the churches, groups and individuals who filled boxes and brought them to us,” said Linda Simon, church relations coordinator for Operation Christmas Child. “They came from throughout Harrison, Taylor and Lewis counties.”
Those boxes were still rolling in Sunday as they arrived from drop-off stations in Shinnston, Salem, West Milford, Weston and Grafton.
Reps from OCC and Fellowship Bible Church will be at the church from 1-3 p.m. today to accept any last-minute shoeboxes.
But at 3 p.m., the truck will be on its way to the Boone, NC processing center, where boxes will be checked for in appropriate items – such as liquids and war-related items - and supplemented, if necessary, with additional age-appropriate items.
“The full integrity of that box remains intact. They may add items if they are lacking, but they never take anything out a box and put it in another,” Simon said. “Then that box is taped with Operation Christmas Child tape and it is never touched again until a volunteer cuts that tape and hands the box to a child.”
The boxes will be distributed to children in need around the world – many who have never received a gift before. The distribution of these 11,000 boxes – as well as thousands and thousands of others- will be taking place throughout the coming months.
Fellowship Bible Church serves as a collection center each year. This year, an exceptionally high number of boxes were contributed.
“Numbers were up this year. Definitely, God blessed us with many more shoeboxes this year. We were just thrilled,” Simon said.
Perhaps there is no better use of the phrase “Labor of love.”
“The end result is so worth it,” Simon said. “It’s all about the children and it’s about reaching out in love and filling up a child’s heart with joy and a few gifts. And it’s about the greatest gift which is Jesus Christ – God’s son – giving them hope and letting them know somebody loves them.”
Read more about the Operation Christmas Child project at this story about Bridgeport’s Deborah Morris.
Operation Christmas Child is a project of Samaritan’s Purse. Visit the website HERE.
See more of Saturday's activity at Fellowship Bible Church, the area's collection center for Operation Christmas Child, at the gallery link below.
