by Debbie Vanaman
Twenty-five years ago this year a very small lady from Ikes Fork, West Virginia got the idea to go up and down the hollers of her community and collect items to be put in shoeboxes and then to take those shoeboxes to the children in countries like Bosnia and Kosovo.
Well since that time over 150 MILLION shoeboxes have been distributed to children around the world and through this effort, countless numbers of children and families have heard the name of Jesus Christ and many have given their hearts to the Lord. Some of those children now even working for Operation Christmas Child sharing their testimony of how that one shoebox has changed their lives and the lives of their families.
We here at FBC have been involved in this program almost since the beginning and every year your support and giving to this ministry truly blesses those children. Even in these troubled times, you share your blessings and help a child who literally may have nothing more than the clothes on their back with a shoebox that contains things like soap and a washcloth, a toy, a book, some personal items and maybe some school supplies.
For the month of October, what I am asking you for you don’t have to go to the store to buy. We are pretty much set on everything we need for our youth to fill the 100 shoeboxes that they will be putting together next month. What I am asking for comes from your checkbook. What is needed is $9.00 for each shoebox that we fill and if you do that math that’s $900. Now that might sound like an awful lot of money but if 100 people gave only $9.00, it would be done. Or if 50 people gave $18.00, it would be done. While I know we have support from people who have donated throughout the year for the shipping costs, still more is needed. So if you write a check, just put shoebox postage in the memo line and place it in the offering plate on Sunday mornings or mail it to the church.
I have heard the testimony first hand of how these shoeboxes have changed lives and this ministry goes 365 days a year distributing shoeboxes around the world. Please keep them in your prayers as they spread the name and gospel of Jesus Christ.