Operation Christmas Child
There are exciting things happening this year with Operation Christmas Child!
We are working hard to grow this ministry year after year. This year our Women on Mission group and our Men's Brotherhood group have each committed to packing 100 shoe boxes. So that's 200 boxes right off the bat for 2021! This ministry is such a great way to get the Gospel out to children and their families around the world! With a head start of 200 boxes, we will have no problem sending 300 or even 400 boxes as a church this year. Click the button for full list of age and gender appropriate gifts to fill your shoe boxes.
We are working hard to grow this ministry year after year. This year our Women on Mission group and our Men's Brotherhood group have each committed to packing 100 shoe boxes. So that's 200 boxes right off the bat for 2021! This ministry is such a great way to get the Gospel out to children and their families around the world! With a head start of 200 boxes, we will have no problem sending 300 or even 400 boxes as a church this year. Click the button for full list of age and gender appropriate gifts to fill your shoe boxes.
We are collecting shoebox items all year long! We are doing this in hopes of making it a little easier on everyone's wallet. Check the chart at the bottom of this page to see what we are collecting each month. We are hoping to pack even more boxes in 2021 than we did in 2020! In 2018 Riverside Baptist Church contributed 190 shoe boxes to this endeavor and in 2019 we packed 268! This year our goal is to send over 300 shoe boxes and we need your help to accomplish that! If you're not familiar with OCC, I've included a little info from their website below:
Sending the Gospel to the Ends of the Earth
Operation Christmas Child gift-filled shoe boxes go to difficult places. From densely populated inner cities to deserts and jungles, local churches are using these gifts to share the Gospel—even where the Name of Jesus has never been heard. Working with these ministry partners, Samaritan’s Purse aims to follow the Apostle Paul’s example and preach Christ where He is not yet known (Romans 15:20-21). Together, despite formidable challenges, the Lord is opening doors for us to deliver Good News and great joy to children in need around the world!
Pacific Islands Initiative:
SHOEBOX GIFTS TO 1,000 NEW PLACES
We plan to deliver gift-filled shoeboxes to boys and girls on 1,000 Pacific islands over the next few years. Going island to island with the Gospel, we will work to introduce children to Jesus Christ. This new initiative is in addition to our continuing shoebox outreach efforts in more than 100 countries.
Hard-to-Reach Areas:
IN OVER 50 RESTRICTED COUNTRIES SINCE 1993
Some areas are difficult to access with the Good News of Jesus Christ for geographic or cultural reasons. In the last year alone, we’ve given specially-packed shoebox gifts to over 1 million children in more than 25 of these countries. Sent often through Build a Shoebox Online, these shoebox gifts provide ease-of-access through customs and give Christians in each nation a platform for sharing the Gospel in a culturally sensitive way.
Unreached Peoples:
WHERE THE GOOD NEWS HAS NEVER BEEN HEARD
Samaritan’s Purse is bringing shoebox gifts and the message of the Gospel to more than 100 ethnic groups whose population is less than 2 percent Christian. Among one of these unreached groups—the Himba of Namibia—we distributed shoebox gifts to 130 children.
We also partnered with Seed Company, an affiliate of Wycliffe Bible Translators, to translate more than 80 Bible stories, including the entire Gospel of Mark, as well as our follow-up discipleship program, The Greatest Journey. Since the Himba have a predominantly oral culture, these stories were distributed on 170 solar-powered MP3 players. Nearly 50 of the Himba shoebox recipients completed the 12 lessons of The Greatest Journey and, now, there are more than 80 believers among this unreached people group! Their village chief donated land for a church building and Samaritan’s Purse funded its construction. Our partnership with Seed Company continues in more unreached areas.
Starting Churches:
TRANSFORMING COMMUNITIES BY THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL
Gift-filled shoe boxes provide a unique way for churches to share the Gospel in new areas. Millions of the boys and girls who receive them are also invited to participate in The Greatest Journey discipleship course, where they learn to faithfully follow Christ and share Him with others. As participants tell their friends and family the Bible stories they learn in class, they, too, become Christians, and in turn, disciple still others. New churches begin and the body of Christ continues to multiply.
This truly is an amazing ministry and we hope that you feel compelled to pack a shoe box or 2! We have shoe boxes available in the church office but any shoe box will do. The deadline to turn in your boxes is November 15th. Click on the link for a list of items you can include in your shoe boxes and what NOT to put in your shoe boxes:
https://www.samaritanspurse.org/operation-christmas-child/what-goes-in-my-shoebox-suggestions/
Call the church office if you have any additional questions: (936)594-6992
Sending the Gospel to the Ends of the Earth
Operation Christmas Child gift-filled shoe boxes go to difficult places. From densely populated inner cities to deserts and jungles, local churches are using these gifts to share the Gospel—even where the Name of Jesus has never been heard. Working with these ministry partners, Samaritan’s Purse aims to follow the Apostle Paul’s example and preach Christ where He is not yet known (Romans 15:20-21). Together, despite formidable challenges, the Lord is opening doors for us to deliver Good News and great joy to children in need around the world!
Pacific Islands Initiative:
SHOEBOX GIFTS TO 1,000 NEW PLACES
We plan to deliver gift-filled shoeboxes to boys and girls on 1,000 Pacific islands over the next few years. Going island to island with the Gospel, we will work to introduce children to Jesus Christ. This new initiative is in addition to our continuing shoebox outreach efforts in more than 100 countries.
Hard-to-Reach Areas:
IN OVER 50 RESTRICTED COUNTRIES SINCE 1993
Some areas are difficult to access with the Good News of Jesus Christ for geographic or cultural reasons. In the last year alone, we’ve given specially-packed shoebox gifts to over 1 million children in more than 25 of these countries. Sent often through Build a Shoebox Online, these shoebox gifts provide ease-of-access through customs and give Christians in each nation a platform for sharing the Gospel in a culturally sensitive way.
Unreached Peoples:
WHERE THE GOOD NEWS HAS NEVER BEEN HEARD
Samaritan’s Purse is bringing shoebox gifts and the message of the Gospel to more than 100 ethnic groups whose population is less than 2 percent Christian. Among one of these unreached groups—the Himba of Namibia—we distributed shoebox gifts to 130 children.
We also partnered with Seed Company, an affiliate of Wycliffe Bible Translators, to translate more than 80 Bible stories, including the entire Gospel of Mark, as well as our follow-up discipleship program, The Greatest Journey. Since the Himba have a predominantly oral culture, these stories were distributed on 170 solar-powered MP3 players. Nearly 50 of the Himba shoebox recipients completed the 12 lessons of The Greatest Journey and, now, there are more than 80 believers among this unreached people group! Their village chief donated land for a church building and Samaritan’s Purse funded its construction. Our partnership with Seed Company continues in more unreached areas.
Starting Churches:
TRANSFORMING COMMUNITIES BY THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL
Gift-filled shoe boxes provide a unique way for churches to share the Gospel in new areas. Millions of the boys and girls who receive them are also invited to participate in The Greatest Journey discipleship course, where they learn to faithfully follow Christ and share Him with others. As participants tell their friends and family the Bible stories they learn in class, they, too, become Christians, and in turn, disciple still others. New churches begin and the body of Christ continues to multiply.
This truly is an amazing ministry and we hope that you feel compelled to pack a shoe box or 2! We have shoe boxes available in the church office but any shoe box will do. The deadline to turn in your boxes is November 15th. Click on the link for a list of items you can include in your shoe boxes and what NOT to put in your shoe boxes:
https://www.samaritanspurse.org/operation-christmas-child/what-goes-in-my-shoebox-suggestions/
Call the church office if you have any additional questions: (936)594-6992
