Operation Christmas Child

Does anybody else do this?

Jess and I just put our box together and dropped it off yesterday. It was really neat, because I didn't realize that the drop-off place was my aunt's husband's church (he's a pastor), and when we walked in, it was such a nice surprise to see her!

My best friend Jenny got me started on it a few years ago, and now I do it every year. It's become a tradition for her, her sister, Jess, and I to all do our "shoebox shopping" together I'm not a Christian, and certainly not "churchy," but I like the idea of bringing a smile to a kid's face and giving them some stuff that they need.

Originally Posted by kaete

Does anybody else do this?

Jess and I just put our box together and dropped it off yesterday. It was really neat, because I didn't realize that the drop-off place was my aunt's husband's church (he's a pastor), and when we walked in, it was such a nice surprise to see her!

My best friend Jenny got me started on it a few years ago, and now I do it every year. It's become a tradition for her, her sister, Jess, and I to all do our "shoebox shopping" together

I'm not a Christian, and certainly not "churchy," but I like the idea of bringing a smile to a kid's face and giving them some stuff that they need.

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Our church is a main drop-off center for the boxes. Yesterday was the last day- dh and I spent the day helping. It was fun. Tiring, but fun. We gave 2 of them. The stuff to put in them isn't bad, but the shipping costs almost as much as the 2 boxes of "stuff".

The lady who runs our center got yelled at by someone dropping off a box. They said "Why are you concentrating on giving something to these kids overseas, when the economy here is in a tailspin, and there is a lot of need here?" (that was the idea of what she said- it was said with a nasty tone of voice). Well- first of all, all of the things that you put into these boxes, if you gave them to the average American kid in need, they would throw the entire thing away. What 12 year old in America wants a box full of Dollar tree stuff?

I know the country's hurting. But as I told my girls yesterday, the poverty in other parts of the world is MUCH worse than here. There are some people who live in cardboard boxes in the middle of winter, but not as many as there are in some overseas countries. And they need our charity just as much as home does.

It is a wonderful ministry. Thank you .

Ive never heard of it, do you have a link or something for the program?

Here in Edmonton I support Santa's Anonymous, which is for local children, but Im becoming a little skeptical of them and what they do with what they actually collect...

I'm not familiar with it either, but I always get at least one gift for the K-Mart wishing tree.

We have "adopt a family" here, where you buy food and gifts for families here locally. You don't know who it is, but you know the ages and such of all the members of the family so you can buy things that are special to them.

I used to do the 'Shoebox Appeal' for Romanian children at school. Every Christmas we took in a shoebox full of toys, chocolate or baby clothing to school and wrapped them up. At the end of November our teachers would send them away to make sure they arrived in time.