Monday is last day to give to Operation Christmas Child
By Bonnie Edwards
Published in News on November 16, 2007 1:45 PM
Adamsville Baptist Church is accepting donations of shoe boxes filled with toys, candy and hygiene items for needy children all over the world.
About 60 church members are loading a tractor-trailer truck with gifts as part of Operation Christmas Child, a project of Samaritan's Purse led by Franklin Graham, CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
The local effort is headed up by Trellis Phillips, who first learned about the program nearly 15 years ago. Adamsville Baptist Church has been taking part in Operation Christmas Child ever since.
The boxes filled with gifts arrive by airplane, donkey and boat, any way to get them to the children.
The shoe boxes are collected in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Australia.
The umbrella charity for Operation Christmas Child, Samaritan's Purse, does many things to help disaster victims. In 1999, Samaritan's Purse sent aid to Wayne County's victims of Hurricane Floyd.
The truck being loaded now in Goldsboro will head out Monday for a processing center in Charlotte.
The volunteers will be accepting shoe boxes Monday for only one hour, from 10 until 11 a.m., and Mrs. Phillips is hoping the arrivals during that time will be last minute individual shoe boxes only.
"Full shipments from groups we want earlier," she said.
Hours of operation in the church fellowship hall are 3 until 5 p.m. on Saturday and from 2 until 8 p.m. on Sunday.
The shipment leaving the church last year contained more than 5,000 shoe boxes.
This year, the volunteers are hoping for 8,000.
"We'll see," Mrs. Phillips said.
For information about how to donate shoe boxes filled with gifts for needy children, call the church at 778-1213.