Serving Others from A to Z: Shoe boxes for Samaritan's Purse

"Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth."  1 John 3:18 NIV

As we go through life, it is easy to give into the worldly pressures of living for yourself.  We all do it!  This year (and hopefully for many more to come) as we study a different letter of the alphabet, we will do a service project that relates to the letter we are studying.

The curriculum we use (My Father's World) studies letters in a specific sequence rather than alphabetically, so our first week was the letter 'S'.  Samaritan's Purse is a wonderful organization that has a multitude of ministries throughout the world, one of which is Operation Christmas Child.  We actually studied this about two months ago and purchased our supplies, but I chose not to post it until we could drop off our boxes for National Collection Week!

In case you've never heard of Operation Christmas Child, here's what you need to know.  Each shoe box is an opportunity to introduce a child to Jesus.  In areas of the world where these boxes are given to children who are in desperate need.  A simple notebook and pack of pencils can make a world of difference to a child who has never had anything of his own.  Here's a video to help you understand:

So what can you do to help?  Pray for what God would have you give.  We were able to pack and send out 35 shoe boxes this year!  Even if you are able to pack 1 box - just think, that is one more child who will have the opportunity to hear about Jesus!  Here's a list of things that you can include in your boxes:

• school supplies - paper, pencils and sharpeners, crayons, markers
• toys - toy cars, small stuffed animals, jump ropes, slinky
• hygiene items - soap, toothbrush, toothpaste
• socks
• a photo of you and your family
• flashlights (extra batteries) 
• and many other things that you may be felt to give

National Collection Week runs from November 12-19.  So you have until the 19th to bring your boxes into any drop off location.  You can find a drop off site here.

Here is my little girl being super silly while she packs a box.  We made big piles in our living room and had a great afternoon stuffing the boxes full of goodies.

Here we are dropping off the shoe boxes at a local drop off location.  Can you tell some of our boxes were a little over stuffed?  We were fortunate enough to get blank boxes.  Elie had the best time decorating them with Christmas stickers.

Operation Christmas Child also has a new option where you pay for the shipping of your boxes online and print the labels straight from your computer.  Your labels will have a special bar code on them that is linked to your email.  Once your boxes are delivered, you will receive emails telling you the countries to which your boxes were shipped.  Two years ago we had about 15 boxes that went to 7 different countries!  I'm excited to have an upcoming geography lesson.

In addition to our service project, we also have a memory verse that is memorized for the week.  Here is the memory verse for our 'S' week.
"Jesus is the light of the world"  John 8:12

And here is one final video about Operation Christmas Child to leave you with.