Operation Christmas Child Shoebox Appeal
A speaker from Samaritan’s Purse came into the school and talked to the children, outlining the positive power of the ‘Operation Christmas Child’ appeal. This year we are collecting the filled and wrapped shoeboxes in school by 18th November, when they will be passed on to Samaritan’s Purse.
A gift ideas guide is available to download above and leaflets will be arriving in school soon, in the meantime, please do look at the Samaritan’s purse website for further information.
Since 1990, Operation Christmas Child – an initiative of the Christian relief and development agency Samaritan’s Purse – has been blessing underprivileged children around the world with gift-filled shoeboxes wrapped and packed by children and adults in the UK.
It’s a campaign that thousands of schools, churches and other organisations from across the UK get involved with between the September and November each year. In fact, it is now the UK’s largest children’s Christmas appeal.
The idea is simple. Children and adults wrap and pack shoeboxes with a range of gifts and take to a convenient ‘drop-off point’. We collect these gift-filled shoeboxes and, after processing for export purposes, we send them overseas where local churches distribute them to children, on the basis of need alone. Each shoebox is an unconditional gift, given to a child with nothing asked for, or expected in return; no pledges, no obligation to go to church or attend classes; ‘no strings attached’.
These shoebox gifts are an expression of God’s love to us, and the gift of His Son Jesus at Christmas. They give local churches the opportunity to show God’s love to children in a tangible way and, during the distribution event, to share the Good News of Jesus Christ, perhaps through age-appropriate music, dance and puppet shows, or through a little book of Bible stories distributed with their shoebox, not inside it: The Greatest Gift.
It’s a campaign that thousands of schools, churches and other organisations from across the UK get involved with between the September and November each year. In fact, it is now the UK’s largest children’s Christmas appeal.
The idea is simple. Children and adults wrap and pack shoeboxes with a range of gifts and take to a convenient ‘drop-off point’. We collect these gift-filled shoeboxes and, after processing for export purposes, we send them overseas where local churches distribute them to children, on the basis of need alone. Each shoebox is an unconditional gift, given to a child with nothing asked for, or expected in return; no pledges, no obligation to go to church or attend classes; ‘no strings attached’.
These shoebox gifts are an expression of God’s love to us, and the gift of His Son Jesus at Christmas. They give local churches the opportunity to show God’s love to children in a tangible way and, during the distribution event, to share the Good News of Jesus Christ, perhaps through age-appropriate music, dance and puppet shows, or through a little book of Bible stories distributed with their shoebox, not inside it: The Greatest Gift.