Hundreds of Shoeboxes Collected for Operation Christmas Child

Hundreds of Shoeboxes Collected for Operation Christmas Child

Gillian Bentley - Submitted

Operation Christmas Child is an annual project organized by the charity Samaritans Purse, in which Vegreville Alliance Church has participated for approximately the past 10 years.

The Vegreville Alliance Church wanted to get involved as they had a desire to bless struggling children in the developing world who otherwise wouldn’t likely be receiving any gifts.

This year the Vegreville Alliance Church collected 86 boxes from the community of Vegreville and surrounding areas and both the Two Hills Mennonite Church and Two Hills Mennonite School also contributed to this number with 108 and 149 shoeboxes respectively, for a grand total of 343 shoeboxes!

Shoeboxes can be filled with toys, hygiene items, school supplies, and other items. They are collected locally, in nearly 400 drop-off locations across Canada, and are then sent to a processing centre in Calgary to be inspected and prepared for international shipment.

After receiving shoebox gifts, many children are invited to participate in the discipleship program, The Greatest Journey. It is a 12-lesson course for children, which includes bible stories, scripture memorization, and they learn how to follow Jesus in their daily lives.

Since 1993, more than 178 million children, in more than 150 countries, have received an Operation Christmas Child shoebox.

In 2019 alone, more than 10.5 million Operation Christmas Child shoebox gifts were collected throughout Australia, Austria, Canada, Finland, Germany, New Zealand, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.