Garnett’s Dunkard Brethren Church, is once again partnering with Operation Christmas Child this year on a project that sends Christmas gifts and the words of the gospel to children in need worldwide. Organizer Karen Edgecomb says the church collected 216 shoe boxes last year and was looking forward to increasing that mark this year. She cites three new churches that are packing as a group and she sees numbers rising. Churches in more than 100 countries participate, distributing gift filled shoe boxes to kids in remote locations, during community outreach events.
Along with the gifts comes the message of Jesus Christ. Edgecomb says most of the kids have never heard gospel before. Worldwide Operation Christmas Child has distributed 232 million shoebox gifts since 1993. The organization collected 11.9 million gift boxes from participating churches last year, which were distributed at over 134,000 outreach events by trained local church leaders. The story booklet “The Greatest Gift” which accompanies the gift boxes, presents the story of Christ, which is available in more than 118 languages, teaching kids about following Christ and telling others about him.
