operation christmas child.

For the last few weeks our church has been collecting shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child, a program with Samaritan's Purse where you filled a shoebox with personal items, toys, and school supplies for a girl or boy in one of three age ranges. The boxes are then sent to children all over the world, along with a booklet in their native language explaining the gospel to them.

I've participated for many years, but I didn't realize just how powerful this outreach was until this year at Catalyst, where one young woman from eastern Europe shared her story of receiving one of these shoebox gifts as a child. The simple fact is that for many, receiving these gifts will be the first time that they realize that there is a God who loves them.

We spend a lot of time talking to the kids in our toddler nursery about sharing and being kind to others, but I wanted to make sure they had a chance to put this into action. So this Sunday, I asked parents to bring supplies for inside the boxes, I brought the shoeboxes themselves, and we filled eight of them. The kids were wonderful - generous and excited to fill their boxes, but the very best part came at the end, when Kristen sat them all down in a circle and they listened intently to her as she told them what a wonderul thing they had done.