Operation Christmas Child

Are you giving thanks or thinking of things you are thankful for with the Thanksgiving holiday coming up?  I know that some days feel so hard with all the things I have going on and the challenges I face, but when I stop to take a minute to look at where I am and how God has blessed my family, I know I am better off than other folks.

I'm happy to be doing another post about Operation Christmas Child and how this wonderful charity impacts so many children world wide.

I'm excited that my family has participated in this for the last few years. It makes me so happy to pack these boxes.  As I pack, I pray for the children that will receive them.  I pray that this will bring them joy and that they will know that someone out there loves them and is thinking of them.

I have to admit I had to quickly pull mine together, so I didn't get a chance to take pictures of what I put inside the boxes. But one thing I did this year was save a bunch of the Happy Meal toys we get and I used a number of those brand new toys to pack in our shoe boxes.  Since they are small, you can fit a lot of them in the box.  I also stocked up on school supplies and sent things like crayons and glue. And of course coloring books are always great too.  Here is a shot of some of our boxes in my car ready to be dropped off at my church.

I was sent a link of this Sudanese Boy Gets Football Joy and I encourage you to take a look at this video.  It is really short.  The look on that boys face is priceless. I have to admit that since I have started having boys I try to pack shoe boxes geared towards boys.  I guess I am biased, but I think there are so many things out there for girls, I think it can be a challenge to pack for boys. 

If you want to participate in this wonderful cause, be sure to visit the Operation Christmas Child website where you can get details on how to participate.  This is a great way if you have really young children to have them help you pack the shoe box and to instill an understand of helping others. I also like that it gives me a way to show them that there is a bigger world outside of the area we live.

For your reading enjoyment, I'd like to recommend stopping by Amanda's blog Serenity Now Blog.  She is also sharing today how she packed shoe boxes and she has some great pictures of the goodies she sent. 

Another great read today is Melanie over at The Big Mama blog.  She is currently in Ecuador and the pictures on her blog are incredible.  They will touch your heart.

I'd love to know if you participate in Operation Christmas Child and pack shoe boxes? If so, what do you send?  Leave me a comment, I'd love to hear!

Hope you are having a great day in your neck of the woods!

Operation Christmas Child

Over this past weekend, I was in the stores taking advantage of the tax free weekend we had for back to school shopping.  Last year I used the great sales on back to school supplies to stock up for the shoe boxes we stuff for Operation Christmas Child which is run by the Samaritan's Purse organization.

If you've never heard of this before, it is a great organization that collects shoe boxes stuffed with goodies for needy children in other countries.  For many children, this is the only gift they will receive.  I found it astounding that they were able to get shoe boxes to 8 million children last year.  Can you imagine? 

On Sunday, I picked up crayons and glue at Kmart.  They are on sale for 25 cents this week.  They do limit you to four.  So if you are out shopping for back to school supplies, grab an extra pack (or couple) of crayons and supplies and start planning ahead to participate in this great cause. If you are not affiliated with a church, don't let that stop you.  You can go to the Samaritan's Purse website and they can tell you where they have a local collection center.  And if you feel led even further, they can use volunteers at the collection centers. 

I personally like to fill boxes for little boys since I have two boys. I had to be bias, but I feel like it is way easier to find girly things to put in boxes, so that is why I put together boxes for boys.  Small trucks, dinosaurs, and coloring books, etc.  These all make great items to send. By the way, they ask that you don't send liquid items (so bubbles are out) and don't send things that could melt like chocolate.

I'm sure as we get closer to the holidays I'll be blogging about this again and sharing what I'm collecting for our boxes. And don't stress if you don't have shoe boxes.  Last year I saw where you could pick some up for free at Family Christian Bookstore. 

I wanted to share some pictures with you of children around the world who have received shoe boxes.  I thought this first picture was so cool because it shoes folks in Africa taking shoe boxes to kids and as you can see, they are riding elephants!  What a cool way to travel.  Can you imagine if your shoe box was delivered by elephant?  Amazing!

 The faces of these sweet girls in Iraq just touched my heart when I saw this picture. 

 And this looks like a happy group of kids in Peru.

 And these kids are hanging out in Zimbabwe with all of their shoe boxes.

I'll be blogging about this again as we get closer to the holidays and give you more ideas for packing shoe boxes.  Wouldn't it be fun to organize a group you belong to (co-workers, Bunco, MOPS, etc) and set a challenge to see who can stuff the most shoe boxes? Start now and by the time November gets here, you all will be ready to go.  November is when shoe boxes get turned into local distribution areas so they can get to the kids by Christmas.

So, have you ever put together a shoe box for Operation Christmas Child?  What did you pack in your box(es)?

If you are jumping over from
then welcome! I'm glad Amanda sent ya!