My niece started a facebook challenge for all her friends to pack a shoebox for Operation Christmas Child.  Her goal this year is to get 500 shoeboxes packed.  I thought this was a great idea, and she does have close to 420 friends on facebook anyway.

Now packing a shoebox with some small toys for kids who otherwise would have nothing costs less than filling one Christmas stocking,  but is priceless to the child who is receiving it.

Operation Christmas Child began in October of 1990, when Dave and Jill Cooke of  Wales wanted to do something for the children in the Romanian orphanages. In 1993, Franklin Graham, International President of Samaritan’s Purse, adopted Operation Christmas Child as a project of the ministry. Samaritan’s Purse first delivered gift-filled shoe boxes to children in war-torn Bosnia and since then more than 77 million shoe box gifts have brought a message of hope, joy, and love to children in over 130 countries. Last season, 640,569 shoe boxes were collected in Canada and distributed to children in more than 15 countries.

Please, check out the website, read the stories and see the pictures of the children who receive Christmas Shoeboxes every year. And make a box. Or 5.    http://www.samaritanspurse.org/

Don’t have time to pack a box? There are other options! On the website you will see that you can make a donation or pack a box online! Or, see if there are ‘packing volunteers’ at a distribution center near you. In previous years there have been people willing to pack your box for you if you donate the money to make one.  Check your local area.

In fact, here is a challenge for all of you.  Lets see how many boxes we can pack!  I will have a tally going on the side bar.  The drop-off deadline for the shoeboxes is the week of November 15th.  Please check your local area.

Here is a helpful link with everything you need to know about filling your box:

http://samaritanspurse.ca/occ/PackaBox.aspx

Feel free to pass this on to your friends and family too!

With all the devastation around the world this 2010,  please help me put a smile back on few children’s faces, if only for a moment.  It will be a moment they will treasure.

Namaste!

Donna

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If you have any misconceptions about the charity, I encourage you to read these facts. I have heard that all kids are forced to convert, or go to church to receive a box and after having personal friends volunteer and actually go to deliver these boxes, I can say that this is not at all true. Information about how it all works can be found here
http://www.samaritanspurse.ca/occ/