Filling Shoe Boxes

Some of you may already know of the work of Samaritan's Purse, and their Operation Christmas Child campaign. Essentially, millions of people fill a shoe box with gifts for a child, they drop their box off at a 'drop off point', and then these boxes find their way into the hands of needy children right across the planet.



As a church we started filling shoe boxes a few years ago. Then two years ago we became a drop off point - somewhere were local people and schools could bring their boxes - and these would then be collected to be taken to a warehouse for the next part of the process.

This year, for the first time, we have become a satellite warehouse. For the past two weeks, and for the next two weeks, the church has become a warehouse during the week.

Boxes are delivered by the hundred.

A team of volunteers then process each box. This involves carefully checking the contents to make sure that unsuitable items have not been included.

Unsuitable items would include things like war toys (many boxes go to places affected by conflict), plastic snakes or biscuits. Other items, such as a tube of toothpaste, need to be wrapped in clingfilm to ensure that if they were to leak on their long journey the rest of the box will not be damaged.

If possible volunteers try to leave boxes just as they were when they were originally packed.

Once checked, the boxes are sealed with tape, and then boxed into cartons - about 10 or 11 shoe boxes per carton - each carton for a specific group: boy/girl aged 2-4/5-9/10-14.

80 cartons will fill a lorry - and these are then taken to a nearby storage facility, where 800 cartons will be loaded onto a container ready for shipping.

The first container will be leaving on Saturday, heading for Mozambique.

So far we have processed about 1300 shoe boxes, and we anticipate doing another 3000 before the end of the month.

To find out more about Operation Christmas Child click here.