Sandy Crapet said her church — First Baptist Hoover — has been packing shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child for many, many years.
It started with individuals making boxes. It grew into packing parties.
And this year, they got even more of a glimpse into the bigger picture.
“I didn’t really know what the process was, and I found out there were churches where you dropped off boxes, and I thought this would be a great way to help,” Crapet said.
So she and fellow church member Onie Wallace got in touch with their area representative for OCC, a ministry of Samaritan’s Purse.
OCC has sent more than 209 million shoeboxes filled with toys, school supplies and hygiene products to children all over the globe since the effort started in 1993.
Volunteers also follow up with discipleship for the shoebox recipients.
This year, FBC Hoover served as one of Alabama’s 131 OCC drop-off locations during National Collection Week in mid-November.
We were thrilled — we got 1,510 boxes,” Crapet said. “If you think about it — 1,510 children will get a box that came through our little church and have the potential of learning about Jesus and accepting Him as their Lord and Savior.”
After receiving the shoeboxes, volunteers at FBC Hoover packed them into moving boxes, then took those boxes to Gardendale First Baptist Church to be loaded and transported to the regional processing center in Atlanta.
“Being involved in this ministry at this level has just enhanced my appreciation for this ministry,” Crapet said.
She said last year she visited the processing center in Atlanta and took with her fellow church member Sana Haddad, who is originally from a Middle Eastern country where children receive the packed shoeboxes. Haddad’s adult son packs dozens of boxes now because he still has items he received as a child and knows how much he was impacted by the gifts.
‘A lot of good’
“She was just overwhelmed to tears to see all the boxes,” Crapet said, noting that the ministry is “a good thing — a lot of good comes out of it.”
In addition to benefiting the recipients, OCC is a good way to involve senior adults in ministry, she said. “Our seasoned adults have so much to give, and maybe not all of them can go to the processing center in Atlanta, but they can pack shoeboxes, they can give money so I can go shopping for them or somebody else can.”
Crapet said they can help count boxes and put rubber bands around them, and they can also pray with people who drop off the shoeboxes at the church, something Samaritan’s Purse encourages its volunteers to do.
“When people drop boxes off, we would ask them if they have any prayer requests,” Crapet said. “They were surprised and grateful and we got to pray for things going on in their lives.”
Boxes are still being processed for this year, but last year, churches and individuals in the U.S. packed more than 9.3 million shoeboxes. Partnering countries gave an additional 1.3 million boxes to the effort.
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