Christmas has come early to Barbour Baptist Association. For more than five years Barbour Association has encouraged its churches to participate in the yearly Operation Christmas Child campaign. The association started distributing empty shoeboxes two weeks ago and the project to fill them has been in full swing ever since.
According to Barbour Baptist director of missions Don Hatcher, they collected more than 1,200 boxes in 2017 and 80 percent of the association’s churches participated.
Hatcher said the primary reason for the project is to get the gospel out through the boxes, hoping that the recipients will see the expression of God’s love for them.
This event also is important to the association and its churches because they don’t get many other opportunities to participate in missions, Hatcher said.
“The majority of members in these churches are elderly and unable to do some of the physical missions activities required of other missions projects,” Hatcher said. “They readily accept the opportunity to get involved in Operation Christmas Child because it’s so simple and doesn’t require a lot of physical activity. It’s the highlight of the year for them.”
The Great Commission tells us to make disciples of all nations, and though many of the church members in Barbour Association can’t physically go to the ends of the earth, they have found a way to send the gospel and God’s love to the nations.
‘Relevant’
“It is a special missions project for our association and we wish we could do more,” Hatcher said. “At least the churches are getting to do something that is relevant and underscores their interest in missions.”
For information on how you can get involved with Operation Christmas Child visit www.samaritanspurse.org/what-we-do/operation-christmas-child/.
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