Operation Christmas Child

This past week, we got our kids some shoe-boxes so that they could take part in the Operation Christmas Child.  For those who don't know what that is - it is an outreach of Samaritan's Purse (click here to go to their website) that brings the unconditional love of God to needy children in Third World countries by giving them a shoe-box full of gifts.

This is the first year that our kids did it individually and it was quite moving.  We received from Samaritan's Purse a DVD detailing the outreach and as we watched a few clips of children receiving their shoe-boxes, you could see it impacting our kids, especially the two older ones - they had tears in their eyes, but were trying hard not to show it.  Afterwards, we talked about how blessed we are that we have such abundance.  And how some children have nothing and this shoebox might be the only present they receive their whole life!

In any case, we went out the next day after school and the kids were able to buy small gifts to put in their shoe-boxes.  And get this, they used their own money to buy everything.  The two older kids wanted to do 2 boxes each - one for a boy and one for a girl.  Sweet.  And the church is doing it too - it's a great outreach.  Think - an hour out of your week (even year) and you could bless a child for a lifetime!