Since it began in the early 1990’s, more than124,000,000 (124 million!) shoeboxes of love gifts to poor children around the world! That is the story of the great work of Operation Christmas Child!
Hear Vicki Stamps, Coordinator in St. Louis, MO, city and county, share the Operation Christmas Child story … in her own words
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From www.samaritanspurse.com/occ, telling the story, explaining how to be a part::
“What goes into the box is fun. What comes out is eternal. Every gift-filled shoebox is a powerful tool for evangelism and discipleship – transforming the lives of children and their families around the world through the Good News of Jesus Christ!”
Vicki reminds us that the National Collection Week of the shoeboxes is always the week just before Thanksgiving. In 2015, for instance, it is November 16 – 23. In visiting the website, click on the “Find your drop-off location” tab. Enter your postal zip code to find the locations nearest you.
In this radio conversation with Vicki – a journalist in the St. Louis region – she provides much good news. For example, there are thousands more OCC collection locations this year than last year! Let that reality “soak in.” Not just thousands of locations … but thousands more than last year!
And the OCC volunteers I have observed experience great joy of those taking part!
A personal favorite story of mine is depicted in a video produced by Samaritans Purse. It is a nine-minute story of Alex of Rwanda. With family members murdered in the civil war there, Alex returns to the orphanage where he lived to distribute OCC shoeboxes …and to visit the prison express forgiveness to the murderer. This brief story is so warmly impacting! To see it, click on http://www.samaritanspurse.org/operation-christmas-child/alex-story/.
To hear my earlier radio time with Alex … titled … “Alex of Rwanda saw family murdered; in orphanage given OCC shoebox, received Jesus, forgave killer” … click on … http://haroldhendrick.com/content/view/469/5/ .