Donations multiply as local families provide school supplies for children around the world
Published on Sunday, August 11, 2024, 0:00
- A child overseas reacts to receiving a gift box from Samaritan’s Purse. – Submitted
Local families are preparing for the new school year with back-to-school sales and adding more items to their lists for children in need around the world. Shoebox packers are using this time to purchase gifts and essentials to fill the Christmas in Heaven shoeboxes. Children in over 100 countries are being blessed by these gift-filled shoeboxes and the hope of Jesus.
Many children around the world cannot afford school supplies, and colored pencils, crayons and markers are a luxury that many cannot afford. Olesea Makarets, a shoebox recipient from Moldova, divided the markers among her siblings in her home. The colorful markers were used until the last drop, and then she and her siblings dipped the markers in water to try to make them last longer.
When Makarets received a shoebox as part of the “Christmas in Space” campaign, she remembers what struck her most.
“I couldn’t take my eyes off a pack of colorful markers,” she said. “My siblings and I shared the markers we had, but now I had a pack all my own.”
The simple gift had a profound impact on Makarets’ life.
“When I received a shoebox as a gift, I realized that Jesus, the powerful man from the Bible, actually exists,” she said.
Packing school supplies in shoeboxes can change a child’s life and give them more hope.
For more information, call 704-583-1463 or visit samaritanspurse.org/occ.
National Collection Week runs from November 18-25. Participants can donate $10 per shoebox gift online through Follow Your Box and receive a tracking label to track the destination. Those who prefer the convenience of online shopping can browse at samaritanspurse.org/.
Operation Christmas Child, a project by Samaritan‘s Purse’s mission is to show God’s love in a tangible way to children in need around the world and to work with the local church to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ around the world. Since 1993, Operation Christmas Child has collected and delivered more than 220 million shoeboxes filled with gifts to children in more than 170 countries and territories.
