Tables of contents: Churches pack heartfelt shoebox gifts for global reach

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Anne Durham Smith
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Jeff Weiland takes a group picture of T and T group members in the AWANA program after they packed shoeboxes Wednesday at Brandywine Community Church. Anne Durham Smith | Daily Reporter

GREENFIELD — Garrison Nivens eyed the table of school supplies and reached for a compass.

It was one of several long white tables stacked with gifts to go in the shoebox. Hygiene items such as washcloths. Hair elastics. Toys.

As he worked, the 11-year-old tried to put himself in the shoes of another boy opening the box thousands of miles away.

“I think about what I want, and I put it in there,” he said.

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Garrison and other children in the AWANA program at Brandywine Community Church spent part of their meeting Wednesday packing shoeboxes to be shipped overseas and given to a child for Christmas.

The time they spent was among a number of “packing parties” going on locally as a number of Hancock County churches support the annual Christmas outreach by Samaritan’s Purse, a faith-based relief organization led by Franklin Graham, son of the late evangelist Billy Graham.

It asks people to buy a “wow” toy such as a soccer ball or stuffed animal, add some practical hygiene items and school supplies, and fit it all into a shoebox for a child on the other side of the world.

“I imagine her showing her parents,” said Allison Stoner as she packed a box for a girl with AWANA classmate Gracie Lucas. “Being proud and being happy, because that’s her only gift.”

Children also were among those packing boxes Sunday at New Palestine United Methodist Church, where 120 boxes were filled.

Amanda Kauffman said her family is new to the area but had packed shoeboxes in years past while living in Michigan and wanted to continue doing so here.

“To have the honor to give to children is a blessing,” she said. “To know they will learn about salvation is the most important thing anyone can teach a child.

“My husband and I want our children to know the greatest blessing is to give — to give of time, love and money.”

Mohawk United Methodist Church’s congregation also gathered to pack shoeboxes, filling 148 on Saturday.

“We collect items throughout the year,” missions chair Leslie Dalton wrote in an email to the Daily Reporter, “and choose one day to assemble and pack the boxes.”

Mt. Comfort Church plans to fill boxes on Nov. 24. Members of the congregation can bring in boxes they’ve already filled, or they can help fill boxes that day in an assembly line. The Rev. Ethan Maple said the church hopes to collect 50 pre-filled boxes and to pack 100 more at the event.

For the latter, the church has been gathering donations — about $2,000 — to order items to fill the boxes and also help pay the $9 per box that Samaritan’s Purse suggests giving toward shipping.

“We found that we can get more bang for our buck by ordering in bulk,” Maple said.

Mt. Comfort Church and Evangel Christian Church are drop-off locations for Operation Christmas Child’s National Collection Week, Nov. 18-25. Individuals who want to fill a shoebox can take them there.

Rose McKinney, who leads the collection drive at Mt. Comfort, has said in the past that about 2,000 boxes come to the Mt. Comfort site from a variety of groups, including church youth, women’s organizations, Scout troops, MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) and individual families.

“This year, Greenfield-area residents hope to collect more than 13,500 gifts to contribute to the 2019 global goal of reaching 11 million children,” according to a press release from Samaritan’s Purse.

Boxes brought to collection sites are gathered into larger boxes and driven to Heritage Christian School in Indianapolis, where another team of volunteers waits to load the cartons onto trucks headed to Boone, North Carolina, near Samaritan’s Purse headquarters.

But before the cartons and the trucks comes the single shoebox.

As he sorted items Wednesday at Brandywine before the AWANA children came in, Chris Grimes said each year he sees the children connect with the project.

Grimes, one of the adult group leaders, said while the AWANA children do other giving through the year, packing the shoeboxes is special for them.

“I think it’s a worthwhile time for them,” he said. “They seem really engaged in this. … It seems a lot more personal for them.”

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My interest began at a young age, about four, when I saw a video of a girl named Lejla that had received a shoebox. Prior to that, she had been forced to halt her education because her shoes were falling apart, and she had no way to walk to school in the snow. Inside the shoebox were, quite fittingly, shoes. She was able to begin her education again, go to college, and eventually work for O.C.C.

 

As a child, this story hit hard. I had always loved school and couldn’t imagine being unable to go. I really wanted to change someone’s life the way that Lejla’s had been changed.

 

My next birthday, I didn’t ask for gifts. I asked for completed shoeboxes or donations toward them, and I hosted a “packing party” at my house, during which my friends and I packed shoeboxes to send off. The first year there were 12. I continued this birthday tradition, and the next year there were more. The number grew, and I simply handed them over to the church.

 

When my family and I moved, however, we also moved to a new church. This one had a practically nonexistent O.C.C. program. Most hadn’t even heard of it. I refused to give up the giving tradition, so at age 11 I started to lead item collections. I told the congregation my story and asked for items to make shoeboxes. We hosted a packing party in the church, and I set a goal for 40 boxes. We packed 105.

 

I was ecstatic. People had gotten excited about giving, and I felt that they were just as invested as me. I had led something for good. I had wanted so badly to change someone’s life with these gifts, but I hadn’t considered how it would change mine.

 

I’ve been leading it since then. I’ve worked with the Sunday School kids, with the parents, and new members. This year we packed 120 shoeboxes, packing so quickly that I ended up with me sitting on the ground, furiously folding more boxes with the kids as they were filled.

 

I never imagined it getting as big as it has. I’m so grateful to my parents and the church for their help, the congregation that donates every year, and of course, Lejla.

 

Kaya Billman is a junior at Greenfield-Central High School.

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Local collection sites for Operation Christmas Child will receive boxes through Monday morning. Donors are asked to fill a shoe box with gifts, including toys, school supplies and hygiene items. Here are the available drop-off hours.

Evangel Christian Church, 1221 E. Main St., Greenfield

  • Nov. 18: noon to 8 p.m.
  • Nov. 19, 21: noon to 2 p.m.
  • Nov. 20, 22: noon to 5 p.m.
  • Nov. 23: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
  • Nov. 24: noon to 4 p.m.
  • Nov. 25: 8 to 10 a.m.

Mt. Comfort Church, 3179 N. County Road 600W (Mt. Comfort Road), Greenfield

  • Nov. 18-22: 1 to 6 p.m.
  • Nov. 23: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
  • Nov. 24: 2 to 4 p.m.
  • Nov. 25: 9 to 11 a.m.

Online: You can skip a trip by packing a box online at samaritanspurse.org/occ.

Where does it go? For those who want to know where their shoe box ends up, a tool online allows box donors to pay the $9 shipping online and print a tracking label to affix to their box. The donor later receives an email with the name of the country.

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