Operation Christmas Child

Have any of you ever heard of this or participated?  This program is part of Samaritan's Purse.  It is where you fill a shoe box up for a a child somewhere in the world that otherwise would not receive anything for Christmas, much less anything all year?  I included a video at the bottom that shows the gist of it.  The website will show you much more!  We have participated in this before when our friend Renea was challenged to do this as a project for a college class to receive extra credit.  Yes it helped her but we did it for the fact that a child would get something for Christmas!  We did two boxes a couple of years ago and we will do two boxes this year.  One for a boy and one for a girl!  You decide if you want to do a girl or a boy either ages 2-4, 5-9, or 10-14. Here are the exact guidelines! We have the boxes that Samaritans Purse provided to us but you can use any standard shoe box out of your closet or you can even use a plastic shoe box that you can buy at ant Dollar Store or Wal~Mart.  Some of the things that they say the children love are toothbrushes, toothpaste, and soap~all personal hygiene items.  Things that we walk into our bathroom everyday and use some of these children have never had.  I know you can especially get some of these items close to free with coupons.  They also suggest pencils!  The kids love them!  Any kind of hard candy, toys, maybe even something to wear.  You could spend $10-$15 and have your shoe box full of stuff that would mean so much!  The Dollar Tree and the Target Dollar Section would be great places to find things for your boxes.  I was watching a video on this program earlier and there was a little girl that looked to be 6-7? and she received a doll in her box and she said that "she had prayed to God for a doll and had always wanted one"!  I am pretty sure all of the ladies reading this had numerous dolls growing up.  I know I did.  If you think you would want to participate in this I would encourage you to!  You can go to their link that I posted at the top and you can print of labels for your box and it will tell you everything that is suggested and not suggested for your boxes.  You are also to include $7 to help get it across the world!  Also, on their link you will need to look up a drop off location.  You just give them your zip code and their should be a local place to drop your box off between November 16-23.  I am in no way suggesting that you do not participate in local charities as well.  We have participated in Giving Trees and Toys for Tots in the past as well!  We are on a budget at our house but for $15 we can make a child smile with stuff that we would take for granted!  I hope all of you participate!  If you need to know more or what to do leave me a comment! If you participate in this leave me a comment also!