I was scrolling through Facebook the other day and saw a picture of my friend Amy. Amy is the former Team Distribution Manager for Operation Christmas Child. She led my trip to the Dominican Republic along with about 8-9 other trips every year. She’s the woman who goes into these communities, schools and churches and organizes the whole shoebox shebang.
Anyway, here’s her picture:
But the best part is her caption, “It’s National Collection Week for Operation Christmas Child. Two years ago in Zambia, there weren’t enough boxes for all of the children that showed up. I sat outside with them and told them about Jesus while their friends were inside receiving a gift. They never got a box. Would you pack a box this week, and then another?! What a dream to have enough boxes for every child in the world.”
I could not get this picture out of my head. After breakfast, I showed the kids and watched them stare with wide eyes at actual kids who were not getting any gifts for Christmas. Before Les left for work, I showed him, too. I felt my must-share-with-everyone thing rise up in me.
So, I emailed Amy and said, “Can I share this with my readers? Pllllleasse?!” She messaged me back right away and said PLEASE DO! Apparently, that entire trip to Zambia, they were dreadfully short on boxes because more kids showed up than they expected.
Why? Because an American (especially a pretty blond) had never been in their area before and everyone wanted to see this novelty! They were so into her hair, she finally just let them get their fingers right in and explore!
She said, “I ended up talking with about 50-100 kids at several different churches, but there wasn’t space or boxes for them. We talked about Jesus. I shared the gospel. We played silly games. And of course the most important part is hearing the gospel, but them not getting gifts BROKE my heart.”
It breaks my heart, too. I packed my first shoebox in 2009 and documented it right here on this blog. Since then I’ve worked in the Processing Center for OCC, delivered boxes in the Dominican Republic and been an advocate here on my blog. This year, we’re hoping to pack 40 more boxes. That’s 40 kids–maybe THOSE 40 kids in Zambia who will receive a gift and learn about the greatest gift of all, Jesus.
If you’re still on the fence about packing a shoebox, let me give you some quick and fast tips on packing the best box ever:
1. Pack a Gender Neutral Box
When I was in the DR, we went to two distribution parties where we ran out of boy boxes. We had to open up the extra girl boxes and see which ones would be appropriate for a boy to receive. So, even though a pink princess box looks fun, why not do a box full of all kinds of treasures–notebooks, puzzles, crayons and toys that all kids would appreciate!
2. Pack It Tight
If you’re gonna pack a box, let’s pack it up! We love to buy little containers, cups and zippered pouches because then we can fill them with small erasers, pencil sharpeners, lip balms, stickers and hair clips before packing them in the box! Just don’t go crazy–an overfull box is not only hard to process but it makes the not-as-great boxes look even worse.
3. Play Tetris
Pack your box with some spatial reasoning and get even more stuff in the box than you thought possible. Put the stickers and notebooks on the bottom. Wrap the soap with the washcloth. Slide the pencils into the sides. Stack up the playing cards and boxed toys tightly together. And if that means you need to take something out of the packaging, do it! It’s better to fit more stuff in than to “prove” it’s new by keeping it in a large bulky wrapper.
4. Don’t forget the Bare Necessities.
Make sure every box includes some kind of toiletries (toothbrush, toothpaste, brush/comb, soap and washcloth are our faves) and some school supplies (some kind of notebook, pencil/pen, crayons/colored pencils/markers).
5. Shop Around
The Dollar Store isn’t always the best deal. You can get full-sized AIM toothpaste at Walmart for 89 cents and 8-count crayons for 90 cents on Amazon. You can buy packs of playdough that have 4 containers inside and spread those out to 4 boxes. I found dresses for $2 at Walmart last week!
6. Add Prayer
An actual child is going to get the box you pack. A real kid! Pray for that child. Pray as you pack the box. Think about what they might think when they see each item. Pray God will use those small gifts to bring hope and light to their life.
You can see more of my journey with Operation Christmas Child here. And explore their website for more information, too!
And I’m going to echo Amy’s plea:
Will you pack a box? And then pack another one?
We belong to a small church (about 150 people) this year our youth group and T&T kids packed the boxes, 130 boxes, then there are the boxes that people are packing at home and bringing to church, so I’ll be excited to see the final count, my guess is around 170.
Our church collects items throughout the year. Starting in January they ask for certain items each month (one month tooth brushes and paste…which one of our members works at a dental office and her office donated 500 of each, so each box gets at least 2 toothbrushes, some 3!), the next month may be wash cloths, July when school supplies come out and are marked down dramatically those are asked for (obviously people can bring in anything else they want throughout the year and leave it in the collection box) but it helps to one keep our congregation focused throughout the year on these children who will be receiving the boxes and helps spread the cost out throughout the year vs people scrambling in October and November when budgets are already getting tighter for many people. When our church started collecting throughout the year, the supplies donated TRIPLED!
We also discovered having our youth group and AWANA T&T group help packing, really helped them to focus on the meaning of the boxes. Many of the kids wrote personal letters to go into the boxes, they all prayed over all the boxes when they finished as well (the kids stepping up and praying outloud/taking turns praying) such a beautiful thing!
What a heartbreaking story! I had done a few boxes in the past, but started doing in with my son last year. It is such a good learning experience for a toddler to pick out toys that he doesn’t get to keep. I was totally having a hard time getting in the holiday mood this year until I saw those boxes at church. It’s what Christmas is all about.
oh my…you…you…you!!! 😉 me and my 2 daughters packed 3 boxes yesterday, but I read your post this morning at work and so I ran home and packed…one…more…box and stuffed a few more things in the other 3 boxes!!! Just because of you! Thank you for sharing though, seriously — so happy now that one more child will get a surprise this Christmas! 🙂
I mean, it seems so little but it’s SUCH a big deal! Thank you! THANK YOU for packing one more!
a
If we pack some gender-neutral boxes, now should we mark them? With a note on the label saying it could be either?
Good question! I’m gonna ask around and see what they say. 🙂
a
there are always most for 5 to 9 girls, they will probably mark a gender neutral box for whichever sex they are running short of. Ps – even girls can like playing with cars. and I read of a 10 yr old boy delighted to receive a nice necklace in his box, it was the first time he had ever had something nice he could give his mum (or perhaps for an older boy to a special friend)
It breaks my heart to think of the shoe box shortage. We have already packed two boxes, my son for a boy in his age range and a box from my daughter for a girl in her age range. After reading this story we will pack two more for an older boy and girl. I have found many useful ideas for packing a box for an older child.
As a family, we don’t have much. Especially this year. We have been scraping by pulling rabbits out of out hat to both pay all the bills and keep food on the table. Every year we make shoe boxes for occ. and this year I received the reminder as we always do and I cried. How could we do our boxes this year…. I prayed and I thought about it for a few weeks. And finally I saw a shoe box on the shelf in our storage room so I pulled it down. And I thought let see what we can come up with.
I went through every cupboard. Every drawer every room I gathered new toothpastes tooth brushes that we got from an even in the summer. And soap and floss left over from stocking stuffers from last Christmas. New toys that my kids forgot about. And on and on and next thing I knew we had enough for 2 shoe boxes.
But there was still the case of the 14$ for 2 boxes. So I prayed and waited. In my waiting we found a few more toys to add to our boxes. And today I received a phone call telling me that I would be receiving some money I’d given up on. So I’ve decided to use some of that money to see if we can’t come up with at least one more shoe box.
Pray and wait and try and god will deliver the rest.
I have lived and worked with wonderful people living in villages in the Dominican Rep, I have never heard of OCC, but what a sweet way to support children while spreading the gospel. Having read many pins about choosing items for boxes, I would like to suggest that one of the greatest gifts that can be included is STURDY shoes or sandals. Many people living in material need spend hours on their feet, and walking over rough terrain. Thin, inexpensive flip flops do not protect feet or lastfor more than a few days. If you can afford them, walking/hiking sneakers or Sport sandals with secure velcro straps, thick soles and good tread will provide comfort and protect feet. Other needs I have seen are for good quality socks, cotton handkerchiefs (not Kleenex), long sleeve shirts made of SPF fabrics, and food containers or bowls with lids, so the children can save any extra food away from bugs and rodents. A pricey but wonderful gift is an inflatable solar lamp ($18-$20), as many people live with no or unreliable electricity. Bendiciones!