Operation Christmas Child

One of the highlights of my Christmas season has become helping out with Operation Christmas Child, a ministry of Samaritan's Purse run by Franklin Graham. For those of you who do not know, the ministry sends shoe boxes filled with gifts for children around the world, in order to proclaim the message of Jesus Christ.

For the second year in a row, I was able to be a part of a team from my church to travel to Charlotte, NC, and help in one of the warehouses where all of the preparation happens before the boxes are shipped. It is amazing to see all of the volunteers and workers.

My description of it is like this..."Santa's Workshop".

It was very organized with a leader at each station. We were set up in an assembly line. Each person had a job they were responsible for and then passed the box to the next person. The last person loaded the shoe boxes in large packing boxes and sent them off to be shipped.

Here is the  group from my church working...

Here is my hubby... he was placed at a different station. I guess his "muscles" were needed more somewhere else!

As I was taking a break, I had to take a picture of what I found in the restroom.... scary I know... but no one saw me take this picture....

Ok, so you know all of those hand soaps and lotions that were put in the shoe boxes .... you guessed it.... they put them in the bathrooms to be used for the workers.  Let this be a lesson to those of you who do not read the instructions about what to place in the boxes. Anything liquid can not be shipped, even if it's in a plastic bag! Therefore, it is taken out of the boxes and replaced with a "filler" and either used at the warehouse or sent to a local homeless shelter or ministry. But, it is kind of funny walking into the restroom to find a plethora of soaps and lotions... needless to say, I took a little longer in the restroom trying to decide which soap and which lotion I would use..... I can have a difficult time making a decision... especially with so many choices!!!! As it's hard to see in the picture, the counter top wraps around the other wall with many more lotions and soaps!!



Here are all of the countries the boxes from this center were going....

Needless to say, we had an amazing day. I was so blessed to be a part of such an awesome ministry... even if it was just a little part.

If you are interested in knowing more about Operation Christmas Child... check out this website:

operationchristmaschild.org