Operation Christmas Child Celebrates 8 Million Gift Boxes Collected for Children around the World
"The cool thing about these boxes is that each of these will be filled with toys but they'll also have a gospel tract in the language of the people that will be receiving it."
(Orange County, CA)—Despite recent headlines stating that the US has been in a recession for the past year, one humanitarian project that benefits needy children all around the world is celebrating a generous collection of gift boxes.
Operation Christmas Child, run by Franklin Graham's Samaritan's Purse organization, is reported to have been able to put together 8 million gift boxes for distribution, thanks to people's donations. (Photo: Franklin Graham)
Pastor Greg Laurie of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, California, commented on the project. "The cool thing about these boxes is that each of these will be filled with toys but they'll also have a gospel tract in the language of the people that will be receiving it," he said, adding that "you can also put a letter in it if you'd like and even correspond with the people that will receive the box, and many people have written back."
According to the Christian Post report, Operation Christmas Child has been hand-delivering "gift-filled shoe boxes" to under-privileged children in about 130 different countries, since 1993.
The organization works with churches, households and hundreds of thousands of volunteers world-wide to collect, put together and distribute the gift boxes.
