Operation Christmas Child begins collection of boxes

Volunteers pack Christmas gift boxes into cartons and load them onto semi-trailers in the church’s parking lot. (L-r) Heather Sullivan, Eileen Preseau, Lisa Kneedler, John Kneedler and Mark Carter.

BY DAN HILDEBRAN

Monitor Editor

KEYSTONE HEIGHTS— Volunteers from Alachua and Putnam Counties began dropping off Christmas gift boxes on Monday, Nov. 14, at Trinity Baptist Church in Keystone Heights as part of Operation Christmas Child.

This is the 16^th year Trinity Baptist has served as a collection site for the boxes.

Operation Christmas Child is a worldwide ministry originating in 1993 when Samaritan’s Purse President Franklin Graham delivered 28,000 shoeboxes filled with Christmas gifts to children in war-torn Bosnia.

Since then, Graham’s organization has delivered over 188 million boxes filled with small gifts, school supplies and personal hygiene products to over 170 countries.

Volunteers also include in the boxes a 12-lesson course called “The Greatest Journey,” which teaches children how to follow Christ and share the gospel with others.

Members of Windsor’s Believers’ Bible Study delivered 300 shoeboxes to the Operation Christmas Child collection center at Trinity Baptist Church. (L-r) Bible study members Bonnie Blackwell, Jullie Davis and Nancy Kerr. Also pictured is Diane Michel, Operation Christmas Child central drop-off team leader.

Diane Michel, the central drop-off team leader at Trinity Baptist, said her four-county region was reduced to two counties this year due to a reorganization.

Among the first to drop off boxes at the church on Monday were four members of the Believers Bible Study in Windsor, who delivered 300 boxes to the church.

Bonnie Blackwell, who hosts the Sunday evening Bible study, said around 20 people attend each week.

Volunteers at the church packed shoe boxes into cartons that can hold between 15-17 shoeboxes and then loaded the cartons onto two semi-trailers parked in the church’s parking lot.