With donations made locally, more than 700 children around the world will be blessed for the Christmas holiday.
The River Christian Community Church on East G Street in Oakdale served as the collection location this past week for Operation Christmas Child, a ministry of Samaritan’s Purse. The program sees people filling brightly colored shoeboxes with age-appropriate gifts for girls and boys, some toiletries, stationery and school supplies, small clothing items and more.
Serving as coordinator locally was Patty Cooper, who was busy keeping track of the boxes as people dropped them off throughout the week. The effort ran from Monday, Nov. 17 through Monday, Nov. 24.
By Saturday, they had gone over 600 boxes donated and when the final count came in after the last drop off on Monday morning, Cooper said they had a total of 718 boxes.
“From here we take them to the central drop off in Modesto and from there, they go to children all over the world,” Cooper said.
She noted that among the various drop off locations around the region, some 8,100 boxes were donated, which was 600 boxes over and above the collection last year countywide. This year, the boxes will get into the hands of children in 130 different locations.
“Every single box is a Gospel opportunity, it really is,” Cooper explained. “It’s an opportunity to teach a child about Jesus. And, you know, we have people who, really, that’s not even their thought process, they just want to give to children.”
All the boxes are full of blessings, Cooper added.
“So many of these children that get these boxes have not ever received a gift,” she said.
Donations of the shoeboxes came from local residents, families, other churches in the community … all with the goal of helping a child in need.
Cooper also said there was a bar code on each shoebox so the donor could scan that and keep track of where their box ends up, whether it goes across the country or around the world.
“They don’t even know what it’s like to receive a gift,” Cooper said of those getting the boxes, which also include messages of hope and God’s love. “It’s so fun knowing that you’re part of that, that you’re going to be able to bless a child that way.”
