Shoe Box Ministry
The Power of a Simple Gift—step up, step in! Make a difference!
Thanks for donations delivered to Peace Lutheran Church on November 9th.
Since 1993, Samaritans Purse – Operation Christmas Child has delivered more than 100 million shoe boxes filled with books, toys and treats to children in more than 130 countries all over the world. The receiving children have often been displaced by war, persecution, or genocide. Take your pick, whenever really poor decisions are made, children are at the receiving end of a situation they didn’t create and have no power to control. They often live on city dumps or in shanty towns, sewers, or refugee camps, trapped in poverty, illness and hopelessness.
The idea is so very simple: grab an empty shoe box, fill it with books, school supplies, toys, toiletries and treats—in short, anything you think a child should be blessed with. Finally, please include a check for $7 or more to cover the transport of the box to its final destination: a laughing child who, very often for the first time, receives a gift of any kind!
- When you pack a shoebox, please select one of these three age groups: 2-4, 5-9, or 10-14
- The checks for the postage should be made out to Samaritan’s Purse
- For more information on the suggested contents of a shoe box, please go to www.samaritanspurse.org/what-we-do/operation-christmas-child/
If you prefer to participate with donations other than packed shoe boxes, please feel free to bring the following items to church:
- Board books suitable for toddlers (Half-Price books is a good resource)
- New or as-new stuffed toys
- Crayons or big markers
- Toddler tooth brushes
- Toothpaste
- Hard candy (Please – no chocolate as it might melt during transport)
- Small miscellaneous toys
The donated items will be packed into shoe boxes for toddlers and will be delivered at an official pickup location during the week of November 18–25.
Never has reaching so many children, with so little effort, been so easy! Step up, step in – make a difference!