Operation Christmas Child sends gifts around the world

MARION - Sometimes, gifts come in unusual packages.

In this case, they come in shoe boxes being sent to children in third-world countries.

Operation Christmas Child, a national program organized by Samaritan's Purse, sends shoe boxes filled with gifts to children in 150 countries around the world.

To participate in the program, a volunteer can pick up a red and green shoe box-sized 'Gospel Opportunity Box” from a church participating in the program, or they can use their own shoe box or a small plastic storage container. The boxes should be filled with a newly-purchased toy or stuffed animal for children in three age brackets - 2 to 4, 5 to 9 and 10 to 14. Other gifts to put in the box include sports equipment, school supplies, clothing or accessories, craft kits, non-liquid hygiene items like toothbrushes and a note or picture.

This week, volunteers are collecting the boxes and getting them ready for shipping.

Amy Speed, a relay center coordinator at Marion Antioch Christian Church, 433 Cross Road, has already handed out 400 boxes and has had about 50 returned.

Speed, who lives in Cascade, said she got involved with the program 10 years ago.

'I just had such great fun with my kids packing gifts for kids we knew had absolutely nothing,” Speed said. 'The whole point is to not only pack up a shoe box gift, but you're delivering the hope of Jesus. Most of them have never received a gift. These gifts are from strangers, and it's from someone that loves them enough to pack a gift for them even though they'll never meet them.”

Speed said she and her husband approached Antioch Christian Church three years ago and were able to convince the church and Samaritan's Purse to make it a relay center, where program participants can gather filled shoe boxes.

Other drop-off locations in the Corridor are at Hillside Wesleyan Church, 2600 First Ave. NW, Cedar Rapids, and Grace Community Church, 2707 Dubuque St. NE, North Liberty.

Speed volunteers with Operation Christmas Child year-round. Since the national program started in 1993, 135 million shoe boxes have been sent out. The boxes collected from Iowa this year are to be sent to Mexico and the Republic of Niger in Africa.

The gifts make a difference, Speed said, especially for the children in areas impacted by war, extreme poverty or natural disaster. Though kids ages 10 to 14 are often overlooked, Speed said one sewing kit gifted to a preteen or teenage girl could provide her with a necessary means to an income. In another case, she said an 11-year-old in Russia received his first toothbrush from one of the shoe boxes.

While Speed said she knows there are many donation drives during the holiday season, she said she hopes Eastern Iowans remember Operation Christmas Child before the boxes are shipped off Monday.

'It's always good to take care of the people in our community, but I think it's important to think beyond and give to a child that has never, ever gotten a gift,” she said. 'We have so much and so many people have nothing. I'm hoping that people will think about that one child that will change their lives.”

l Comments: (319) 368-8516; makayla.tendall@thegazette.com

To participate

l Pack your own shoe box, excluding food, weapons or other items depicting violence

l Include a $7 check made out to Samaritan's Purse OCC to help cover expenses of shipping

l Drop the box off at one of these locations by Monday: Antioch Christian Church, 433 Cross Road, Marion; Hillside Wesleyan Church, 2600 First Ave. NW, Cedar Rapids; Grace Community Church, 2707 Dubuque St. NE, North Liberty.