It’s almost the Christmas season again, which means time to request those Operation Christmas Child Shoeboxes, pack them, and get them to Royal Redeemer Lutheran Church (RRLC) for inspection and packing, ready for the national collection.
If you are unfamiliar with Operation Christmas Child, it is a program of Samaritan’s Purse a nondenominational evangelical Christian organization providing spiritual and physical aid to hurting people around the world. Since 1970, Samaritan’s Purse has helped meet needs of people who are victims of war, poverty, natural disasters, disease, and famine with the purpose of sharing God’s love through His Son, Jesus Christ. The organization serves the Church worldwide to promote the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Royal Redeemer Lutheran Church, 11680 Royalton Road, is a drop-off center for the shoe boxes filled with small gift items for Operation Christmas Child, Royal Redeemer has been participating in collecting and filling shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child for over ten years and has been a collection depot for over five years. Close to 2500 boxes are expected to be processed, with hundreds of boxes from Royal Redeemer alone. The shoe boxes are collected then shipped to larger national collection stations and then flown to their destinations around the world in time for the Christmas Season. Each year Operation Christmas Child delivers about ten million shoe boxes throughout the world. These shoe boxes may be the only gift the child has ever received in their life.
Anyone can provide a shoe box; the students at Royal Redeemer School provide many boxes and some congregation members of Royal Redeemer work on the project all year long collecting just the right items for each age group. In October any one can get a preformed shoe box to fill and return it. Many people just collect items all year purchasing things at the dollar store or finding a good deal like hand ball pumps. Often items for the boxes miraculously show up at the church office; no name just a note for the Christmas Child boxes. In early November there is a packing party for the preformed boxes at the church.
Every single item is packed in a box for a specific age level child, every individually donated box is treated like a personal gift for a child in need.
Great information is available at www.samaritanspurse.org. Click on the tag line “What We Do,” to find the Operation Christmas Child information. There you will find the best items for boy or girl in three different age groups. You can order a box or several from the website or donate to pack one virtually ready for shipping. You can use a shoe box of your own, a regular sized plastic or cardboard shoe box is requested because it ships easier. Boxes from size 16 basketball shoes, while heartfelt, just don’t ship as well; the idea is to have as many children as possible have their own box.
Deadlines must be followed; get boxes in the first week of October, return to Royal Redeemer by Nov. 12. National collection dates are Nov. 15-22. Terry Close says, “I have boxes in my office that didn’t make the cut off last year. They will go on this year’s truck.” RRLC will have boxes, and labels available, call Terry at (440) 237- 7958, Royal Redeemer Lutheran Church.

By LINDA KWARCIANY
Contributing Writer