BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Three box truckloads of Christmas gift shoeboxes left Trinity Baptist Church last week during Operation Christmas Child’s National Collection Week.
The church serves as a drop-off point for other churches and nonprofits participating in the annual event.
Operation Christmas Child, a ministry of Samaritan’s Purse, has delivered over 220 million boxes to children in over 170 countries and territories since 1993. The boxes contain toys, personal hygiene items, and a booklet that explains the Gospel.
Brittany from Woodlawn Baptist Church in Johnson delivered a carload of boxes in her back seat and trunk to the Lake Region church.
She described her church, located about 15 miles south of Keystone Heights, as a small and friendly congregation of which she has been a member for 21 years.
Brittany said she took over her church’s Operation Christmas Child program after the previous coordinator moved away six years ago.
“This year, we started doing a year-round collection,” she said. “So, we started just asking for specific items every month, and then we distributed boxes, collected money, and then had a packing party, which increased the number of boxes.”
Trinity’s project leader, Diane Michel, said she expected over 5,800 shoeboxes to leave her church’s parking lot before the end of National Collection Week.
