Joyous shrieks punctuate the atmosphere of youngsters tearing into small packages in Guyana and other far-flung locales in the online video clips.
Columbus resident Sheila Richardson’s heart melts when she witnesses such scenes linked to Christian ministry Samaritan’s Purse’s outreach known as Operation Christmas Child. The program allows people to pack a simple shoe box with small children’s toys, trinkets and hygiene items for youngsters in poverty-stricken or war-torn nations of the world.
The ministry ships the boxes after they are dropped off at various distribution centers. Today, Sunday and Monday are the final days for shoe box drop off at two local churches: First Christian Church, 536 Fifth St. in downtown Columbus and Free Methodist Church, 1511 22nd St., where Richardson coordinates the collection.
The project’s overall idea: to show children that they are loved by God and others, according to organizers.
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“I’ve seen the DVDs with the kids opening their shoe boxes,” Richardson said, referring to her introduction to the program years ago. “It’s just heartwarming. I wish I could be there sometime when a group of them opens the boxes.”
First Christian’s collection point last year saw 3,314 boxes dropped off, not far from the 2013 record of recent years. Free Methodist, in only its second year of serving as a collection point, would love to see as many as 500 boxes.
This year, Richardson will once again get help from grandson Christian Watson, now 4, for the shoe boxes she will prepare. The little one helped with shopping and more last year.
“He just loved it,” Richardson said.
She so fell in love with Operation Christmas Child back in 2004 when she served in U.S. Army National Guard in 2004 that she and some of her military buddies packed some 80 boxes for the outreach. She does her best to recruit others to pack a shoebox or two.
“I just explain to people that there are so many kids who don’t have a lot at all,” Richardson said. “And this is a simple way to share the love of the gospel (message). Because so many of the things that we take for granted these kids often see as gold.”
At First Christian, even youngsters in the preschool get into the effort, packing about 80 shoe boxes, according to Christy Farrell, the volunteer drop-off center coordinator. At Columbus Signature Academy Fodrea, teacher Charity Nordyke’s students packed 50 boxes.
Farrell has said before that she’s excited by “the idea that kids all around the world who maybe have never gotten a present can feel God’s love — because people are giving in the name of Jesus.”
Since 1993, Operation Christmas Child has collected and delivered more than 135 million gift-filled shoeboxes to children in more than 150 countries and territories. Some gift packers have included an email address or Facebook page in their boxes, and have heard from a number of the box recipients.
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Packing a shoebox or two for Samaritan’s Purse’s Operation Christmas Child is as simple as filling a shoebox with small toys and trinkets such as spinning tops, markers, or maybe a small doll or stuffed animal.
Detailed instructions are available at operationchristmaschild.org.
Drop off at the local collection hub of First Christian Church, 531 Fifth St., is 9 a.m. to noon today; Noon to 3 p.m. Sunday; and 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. Monday. Information: Christy Farrell at 379-4491.
Or you can drop off at another local collection point at the Free Methodist Church, 1511 22nd St. in Columbus, where hours are from 1 to 6 p.m. today; 2 to 7 p.m. Sunday; and 8 to 10 a.m. Monday.
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