Operation Christmas Child

I am finally recovering after a miserable week - my throat still hurts, and I was still running a fever as of yesterday, but today I have a lot more energy, and I actually got my butt off the couch!

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I wanted to write a quick post about Operation Christmas Child, which is a ministry of Samaritan's Purse, a Christian organization which you can read more about here. I first heard about Operation Christmas Child through our church last year, and I loved the idea of it, especially since we can get the kids involved.

What we do to help is this - collect a shoe box, fill it with small toys, candy, and toiletries for a selected age and gender, wrap it up to look pretty, include a check to help with shipping costs, and bring it to our church for it to be picked up. Samaritan's Purse then sends the boxes all over the world, to give to needy children on Christmas. Over the past several weeks, I have heard of many other churches and organizations collecting boxes as well, so it is fairly easy to participate.

This year, we did 2 boxes, one from Emmy, one from Pooky. Emmy is able to help pick out the gifts and put the box together, and she is getting old enough for me to explain a bit about why we are doing this and where the box will be going. We tell her that we are sending it to a friend who lives very far away, and she does not have as many toys ad nice things as Emmy has. If anything, I am hoping to teach her something about giving to other people.

We put our boxes together tonight - Emmy was so excited to help! At bedtime, she prayed for her "friend who is far away" and that she would like her presents we were sending. It was very sweet to see her "get" it.

Here are our boxes, ready to go -