Each year, children in need around the world receive a shoebox, filled with necessities, school supplies, small gifts, and more. Since 1993, Samaritan’s Purse has collected shoebox gifts filled with toys, school supplies, and hygiene items for children around the world. In those thirty years, more than 209 million children in more than 170 countries and territories have received an Operation Christmas Child shoebox.
Tens of thousands of volunteers from local churches around the world partner with Samaritan’s Purse to provide children with these shoebox gifts. In Greene County, community members and churches are filling shoeboxes for these children. The shoe boxes are divided by sex and age: 2-4 years, 5-9 years and 9-14 years.
Greater Purpose Team Ministries, a charge of six United Methodist Churches located in Jefferson, Rices Landing, Fredericktown, Denbo, Howe and Roscoe, is just one of the many church organizations participating in the event. Since 2010, when they filled 62 shoeboxes, they’ve spent the early portion of the holiday season gathering items and packing the shoeboxes. From those original 62 shoeboxes, their annual donation has increased each year.
If you’d like to participate in Operation Christmas Child, you needn’t be a member of Greater Purpose Team Ministries. Other churches and community members can participate by filling the shoeboxes and taking them to the drop off center during drop off week. You can drop off filled shoeboxes off at the drop off center located at the First Church of the Nazarene located at 115 Deerfield Lane, Waynesburg, PA during national collection week of November 13 – 19. After the weeklong collection, the shoeboxes will be on display at the First Church of the Nazarene on Sunday, November 19, where they will be blessed by the pastor.
Last year, the Greene County Collection site received 3,145 boxes from local churches and individuals.
This church will box everything the shoeboxes up, load them onto a truck, and deliver them to the Bible Chapel in McMurray. There they will be taken to a Volunteer Processing Center in Baltimore, Maryland to be checked for inappropriate items. Inappropriate items are replaced. The boxes are then sealed with tape and shipped to special children all over the world.
The community continues to work together with a common goal in mind and make each year more successful than the last. The work would not be possible without the generosity of our community members the volunteers needed to help with the boxes, transportation, and more. If you are interested in helping Greater Purpose Team Ministries, please contact Susan Christopher with Greater Purpose at susanc14@windstream.net. If you’d like to help at the collection drop off site, please contact Julie C. Gatrell with the First Church of the Nazarene at 724-833-3387.
