The Spirit of Giving

Operation Christmas Child, a Samaritan’s Purse project, delivers hope and shares the goodwill of giving to thousands of children in need around the world. Shoeboxes filled with toys, school supplies, and personal care necessities bring the joy of the Christmas season to children who would otherwise be forgotten. For many, this is the first gift they’ve ever received.

“These gifts open the door for us to share God’s love and the eternal hope of the Gospel with children and their families who are living in desperation and fear. The world is changing, but the message of the cross doesn’t change – bringing the hope of the Gospel to millions, especially the living hope of Jesus. Our mission never changes,” states Franklin Graham, President & CEO of Samaritan’s Purse, expressing the urgency of the Gospel.

The world’s largest Christmas project of its kind, Operation Christmas Child, has collected and hand-delivered over 209 million shoebox gifts to vulnerable children in more than 170 countries and territories. The goal for 2023 is to collect shoebox gifts to reach 11 million more children. Founded in 1993, Operation Christmas Child celebrates its 30th year in the ministry.

Anyone Can Participate

If you can pack a shoebox, you can participate in this ministry to bring Christmas cheer to children worldwide. Individuals, families, churches, and groups work to fill empty shoeboxes with items such as school supplies, personal care items, and fun toys, such as dolls or soccer balls.

The gift-filled shoeboxes are brought to over 4,500 drop-off locations in all 50 states and Puerto Rico during the National Collection Week of Nov. 13 – Nov. 20, 2023. They are collected and prepared for overseas shipment by Samaritan’s Purse.

Even if you miss the collection deadline, you can still participate using Build a Shoebox Online, a convenient way to pack an Operation Christmas Child shoebox gift. Choose from gifts matched to a child’s specific age and gender. Finish filling the shoebox by adding a photo and personal note of encouragement. For a suggested donation of $25 per gift, Operation Christmas Child will pack everything for you and send it with the message of God’s love for a boy or girl in need.

You can build a shoebox online anytime throughout the year. But shoeboxes completed after December 31 will not count in the current year’s shoebox total.

The Bigger Picture

Each shoebox gift demonstrates God’s love to children in need worldwide, and together with local churches, the Good News of Jesus Christ is shared.

A firsthand account demonstrates the impact a shoebox gift made in the life of Izabella McMillon, Speakers Bureau Manager, Operation Christmas Child, “A simple shoebox gift made a profound impact in my own life as a 13-year-old girl growing up in communist Romania. The brand new items in my shoebox were like a splash of color in my black and white world – and a direct answer to a specific prayer. This experience showed me God saw me and heard my prayers. A gift given with no strings attached can make a tangible and eternal impact – even opening the door of a child’s heart to accept the love of God in a personal way.”

Before the shoebox gifts are delivered in over 100 countries, National Leadership Teams volunteer to help train participating pastors and community leaders in sharing the message of the Gospel and bringing blessing to children. They are taught to host child-friendly outreach and implement The Greatest Journey follow-up discipleship program.

In some areas, people do not know Christ, and pastors hold outreach events inviting them to follow the Lord Jesus. Churches also use the shoebox gifts as outreach tools for orphanages and other at-risk areas. In many places, the boxes include The Greatest Gift, a Gospel story booklet prepared by Samaritan’s Purse for shoebox recipients, and an invitation for children to take part in The Greatest Journey discipleship program.

As a result of what they learned in the discipleship program, children grow in Christ and share with friends and family. Students invite others to their graduations, where the Gospel is shared, leading to family and friends accepting Christ and becoming active members in the local church. Families are reached, churches grow, new churches are started, and communities are transformed.

A Fruitful Ministry

Operation Christmas Child is having an enormous impact on the lives of children, especially those in the most isolated areas. Here are some of the latest facts and milestones from Operation Christmas Child:

• Shoebox gifts are collected in Australia, Austria, Canada, Finland, Germany, New Zealand, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the United States.
• More than 10.5 million shoebox gifts were collected globally in 2022, 9.3 million from the U.S. alone. In 2023, Operation Christmas Child hopes to collect enough shoeboxes to reach another 11 million children.
• Nearly 540,000 volunteers worldwide – with more than 220,000 of those in the U.S. – are involved in collecting, shipping, and distributing shoebox gifts.
• Since 2009, 35.4 million shoebox recipients have participated in the 12-lesson discipleship course, The Greatest Journey. More than 24.9 million children have graduated from this program with over 17.4 million boys and girls making decisions for Christ.
• In 2023, Operation Christmas Child is celebrating 50 million children discipled.

About Operation Christmas Child

The influence of a simple shoebox gift could not be more significant, as Jim Harrelson, Vice President of Operation Christmas Child, observed, “Isn’t it amazing that through a gift box, God has raised up intercessors and preachers. I believe the Lord is reminding us today that we are to look upon to nations to observe, to be astonished, to wonder, because He is doing something mighty.”

Operation Christmas Child is a project of Samaritan’s Purse, an international Christian relief and evangelism organization headed by Franklin Graham. Samaritan’s Purse currently works in more than 100 countries to provide aid to victims of war, disease, disaster, poverty, and famine.

Learn more about Operation Christmas Child, and remember, it is all made possible by you when you join God’s work and pack a simple shoebox.

Cover photo: Volunteers brave the cold to transport shoebox gifts via horse-drawn cart in Romania. Photos courtesy of Samaritan’s Purse.