Still time for Operation Christmas Child

Holiday sales may be down this year, but Christmas giving to needy kids overseas is still strong. Millions of U.S. kids, families, businesses, churches, schools and scout troops have already filled more than 7 million empty shoe boxes with simple gifts for underprivileged children in 100 countries. Through Operation Christmas Child - the world's largest Christmas project - project participants know that the brightly colored boxes with toys, pens, paper, necessity items and notes of encouragement might be the only gift these hurting children receive.
THERE'S STILL TIME TO HELP!
To personally pack a shoe box gift through Operation Christmas Child, go to www.samaritanspurse.org for more information.
"Millions of people have already made this a brighter Christmas for a hurting child overseas, but we welcome others to start a new holiday tradition and share the joy of Christmas with boys and girls around the world," said Franklin Graham, president and CEO of the international Christian relief organization Samaritan's Purse.
Operation Christmas Child is an annual project of Samaritan's Purse.This year millions of shoe box gifts have been inspected and prepared for overseas shipment in 6 major centers across the United States: Boone, N.C.; Charlotte, N.C.; Minneapolis; Atlanta; Denver; and Orange County, Calif. Then, the shoe box gifts are loaded onto some of the world’s largest cargo planes, trucks and sea containers bound for the far reaches of the earth.
Once the gifts are transported to countries around the world, Samaritan's Purse teams and partners transport them by truck, bus, train, helicopter, boat, foot, dog sled, mule and even camel to hand-deliver the gifts to hurting children.
More than 250,000 volunteers worldwide, including some 126,000 volunteers in the United States, have joined forces to prepare the boxes for transport to distant lands.
Since 1993, Operation Christmas Child, a project of international Christian relief organization Samaritan's Purse, has delivered more than 60 million gift-filled shoe boxes to needy children in 120 countries thanks to the generosity of people in 11 giving countries.
For more information on how to participate in Operation Christmas Child, call (828) 262-1980 or visit www.samaritanspurse.org.