Operation Christmas Child ships joy from Butler to children worldwide
CENTER TWP — Thousands of shoeboxes have been loaded into trucks at Community Alliance Church over the past week and their journey is just beginning.
Rege Judy, coordinator of Operation Christmas Child at Community Alliance Church, said although the few thousand shoeboxes will be sent to Baltimore, Md., to be shipped to children overseas, it may take until the summer for them to be delivered.
The shoeboxes, packed by people around Butler and Armstrong counties, are meant to be given to children in developing nations countries as Christmas gifts.
In the Butler County area people are always willing to help the church fill trailers with hundreds of shoeboxes each year.
“Our count this year is probably a little ahead of last year,” Judy said. “We’ll probably finish Monday and the trailer will go out Tuesday.”
Operation Christmas Child is a project of Samaritan’s Purse, which aims to “demonstrate God’s love in a tangible way to children in need around the world.” This is done through distributing items, which come from churches around the world.
Eight churches in Butler and Armstrong counties are part of the effort, all collecting shoeboxes filled with supplies to distribute through Operation Christmas Child.
The local churches involved in Operation Christmas Child are Community Alliance, Zion Methodist Community Church in Buffalo Township, Apollo Free Methodist Church in Apollo, Advance Community Church in Mars, Walkchalk Salem Baptist Church in Kittanning, Friendship Presbyterian Church in Slippery Rock, Chicora Alliance Church in Chicora and Three Rivers Free Will Baptist Church in Cranberry Township.
Michelle Pfeifer, project leader at Community Alliance Church for Operation Christmas Child, said on Thursday, Nov. 20, that even though the church expected to get more than 1,000 boxes, many of them may end up on the same continent or the same country.
“If they all get into one trailer, it’s likely they all go to the same place,” Pfeifer said. “We are filling for the Ivory Coast today.”
The eight churches in Butler County get the word out to their congregations they are in search of donations to pack the shoeboxes with and their communities respond in turn. Each box is meant to be packed for a child ages 2 to 14, and they can be labeled with a more precise age. The boxes including items like small toys, hygiene items and useful supplies. Judy said these items may be the first and only Christmas gift a child has received in their life and even having personal possessions may be a privilege they have not yet experienced.
This is true all around the world, Judy said, but he added the U.S. accounts for more than 90% of Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes shipped.
Collection week in Butler County started Nov. 17 and concluded on Nov. 24.
Throughout the week however, volunteers helped Community Alliance Church load all of its shoeboxes into larger shipping containers and then onto box trucks that would take them to Baltimore.
Community Alliance Church has been participating in Operation Christmas Child since 2014, according to Judy, who also said donations had been coming in steadily over the week.
“Collection has been going good,” Judy said.
Aside from the gifts packed into the boxes by individuals, Samaritan’s Purse also places a Christian book into each box, which Judy said is translated into whatever language is used where a box is going to. Additionally, Samaritan’s Purse provides a 12-lesson discipleship program to each area where boxes are distributed.
Judy explained that Community Alliance Church has volunteers of its own, but also utilizes other churches and organizations to help with the donations and packing of the boxes throughout the week.
On Thursday, people from the ARC of Butler County attended the packing session, filling shoeboxes with individual items that had been given to the church, such as combs, brushes, toothbrushes and more. Additionally, other churches had staff and volunteers help get their packed boxes from their trailers into the shipping truck.
The red and green shoeboxes made the scene look like the North Pole, with Judy saying people always turn up to help the church on collection week because it is such a hefty task.
“We get a lot of help every year,” Judy said.
Before sending the truck, Judy and some other people who were loading them at the church prayed over them, a part of the process he said is important and aligns with the mission of Samaritan’s Purse.
“The idea is they want these kids to know that God loves them,” Judy said.
