Churches show love to poor children through shoebox gifts

TEMPLE—Glinda Harbison has been passionate about Operation Christmas Child since she first heard about it, and that passion has only grown stronger over the years.

Operation Christmas Child is a Samaritan’s Purse ministry that seeks to spread the love of Christ to impoverished children around world through a shoebox full of small gifts at Christmas. Participants are urged to pray over the boxes that the gift might communicate that God loves them.

Since its inception, 69 million boys and girls in more than 130 countries have had the gospel shared with them in this way, the vast majority of the children living in orphanages.

After hearing Franklin Graham speak about the nascent program at a meeting in Nashville in 1993, Harbison returned to Immanuel Baptist Church in Temple on a mission.

“I had never told one of our pastors, ‘We are going to do this.’ But I went into our prior pastor’s office and said: ‘We’re doing this. I’m not asking permission. We’re doing this,’” she recalled.

That first year, Immanuel’s congregation packed 35 boxes. “I was just beside myself,” said Harbison, who now serves as the church’s hospitality director.

Last year, people within the church brought 774 boxes to send to children around the world.

This is Immanuel’s second year to serve as a collection center for a number of Central Texas relay centers. The relay centers collect boxes from individuals and churches. Immanuel will take the 8,000 boxes it expects to receive from the surrounding churches and see that they are trucked to Denver for preparation for distribution to children around the world.

Most churches will observe Nov. 16-22 as their collection week. Many will bring their boxes to the collection center on Nov. 22, and the boxes will leave for the distribution center on Nov. 23.

“Some of our people are going to follow the boxes to Colorado and go to the distribution center to help out there,” Harbison added. “They’re simply going to finish what they’ve started.”

Volunteers will open the boxes and take out the $7 needed to pay for the shipping of each box. They also will give it a quick look to see if the contents dictate it go to a warm or colder climate. For example, if someone has knitted a wool cap to include, that box will be sent to a child in a cooler climate.

“The integrity of box is never compromised, because we’ve asked people to pray over the contents of that box,” Harbison explained.

Wayne McDonald will be among the volunteers who make the trek to Colorado.

“I’ve been involved with OCC since Immanuel Baptist Church first started doing it,” he said. “It’s a great thing to do. You spread the gospel and spread a little cheer for a little while—maybe longer than a little while.”

Spreading cheer while spreading the gospel was exactly what first attracted Harbison to Operation Christmas Child.

“I loved the idea of giving a gift to a child who has never received a gift,” she said.

She gained a new perspective about the program, however, on April 19, 1995. She was at a children’s conference and was next to a table of children’s workers from Oklahoma City when they learned of the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building.

“I made a commitment that day to myself that our church would continue to be involved with this ministry because we never knew—and we’ll never know—whose hands these boxes go into,” Harbison said.

It occurred to her that a child who might grow up to be a terrorist after being taught to hate Americans might question those teachings through a box filled with love.

“It may change a life for forever. It just hit me that day the importance of these boxes,” Harbison said.

Children who receive the boxes also are given the opportunity to make a profession of faith and then follow through with a 15-week discipleship course.

“It’s not just sending a shoebox,” Harbison explained. Professions of faith were recorded for 750,000 children last year through Operation Christmas Child.

Last year, a man at Immanuel was deeply moved by an Operation Christmas Child video about a Bosnian girl who contemplated stepping on a landmine to end her life, but a pair of tennis shoes in an Operation Christmas Child gave her the hope to keep living, Harbison recalled. Inspired by her story, the man provided 50 pairs of shoes last year. This year, he has given her money to buy 150 pairs of shoes.

“Once you become a part (of Operation Christmas Child), you realize how passionate people can become—not just about a simple shoebox, but the end results of that shoebox,” Harbison said.