What is Operation Christmas Child? And How You Can Get Involved

By Jeff Crawford 

Operation Christmas Child brings joy and hope to children in desperate situations around the world through gift-filled shoe boxes and the Good News of God’s love. This program of Samaritan’s Purse provides an opportunity for people of all ages to be involved in a simple, hands-on missions project, while focusing on the true meaning of Christmas – Jesus Christ.

This year, National Collection Week is Monday, November 18-Monday, November 25, and once again, we at Life Bible Fellowship Church and others are dedicated to be part of the process of God’s mighty hand at work in this ministry.

The ministry has two components:

First Component – LBF and its church family distributing empty green GO (Gospel Opportunity) shoe boxes, filling them, and returning them to LBF, which will then go from LBF to OCC to be sent all over the world.

Volunteers are needed at church to pass out brochures, boxes, and answer questions between Sunday services. We will need help moving the collected shoe boxes on Sunday, November 24.

Second Component – LBF is a Collection Center for other churches and organizations and will maintain a Collection Center for National Collections Week. Churches from all over the Inland Empire bring their OCC boxes to LBF. We load all shoeboxes into cardboard cartons, place them in a trailer, and ship them to a distribution center for further handling.

Volunteers are needed Monday, November 18 and Monday, November 25 to work at the Belleview House at LBF, which is designated as the Upland Collection Center for OCC. We will be collecting boxes from various churches, social organizations, and relay centers from cities all over our local geography. Contact Jeff Crawford @ (951) 205-3840 to get involved!

Operation Christmas Child SUCCESS!

 
OCC Shoe Boxes get shipped around the world to kids who would otherwise receive nothing! Each box contains toys, candies, clothes... but most importantly, A kid-appropriate devotional that shares the Gospel Message.

This year, we had 40 volunteers that served the LBF OCC Center and greeted our community with a smile when they were dropping off boxes. 

In total, we collected and shipped 14,000 shoe boxes.

2011 Totals-

LBF Donated Total:                                      717
Upland Collection Center Total:                2,077
Relay Center Total:                                  11,206
Grand Total for Collection Network:        14,000  

Last Year *2010 Totals-

LBF Total:                                                    559
Upland Collection Center Total:               3,822
Relay Center Total:                                 16,038
Grand Total for Collection Network:        20,419

LBF donated boxes was up this year by 158. That's a 28% increase!

Note that our numbers were 6,419 shoeboxes less than in 2010.  There was a reorganization of Relay Centers and many of our local churches went to Relay Centers closer to them.i.e. Glendora.

As a side note, since 2006 when we first operated a Collection Center from the Overholt garage and up to and including this year, the LBF church property has facilitated the collection of 80,090 shoeboxes which is equivalent to 8 trailers full of packed cartons of shoeboxes. 

WOW! I am grateful to be part of our church where we have the logistics, the space and many willing servants to help facilitate a worldwide missions project that fulfils God's command of Matthew 28.  

Thanks from both Erik Jacobsen and I for allowing this project to proceed year after year.

Jeff and Robin Crawford 

Operation Christmas Child Update

On behalf of Samaritan’s Purse and Life Bible Fellowship Church, a true thank you to the church body who packed shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child! Because of you, children around the world will hear about the gospel and experience Christmas.

We collected 725 shoeboxes that were delivered to Samaritan’s Purse on behalf of Life Bible Fellowship Church. These boxes, along with the 15,121 other shoeboxes collected at LBF from the Inland Empire, made for a grand total of 15,846 shoeboxes delivered via trailer for Operation Christmas Child!

These gifts will bring smiles to children’s faces and meet some of their physical needs. Pastors and missionaries from these local regions will also share the greatest gift of all - the Good News that Jesus Christ brought to humanity through His birth and His resurrection.

Finally, we would like to personally acknowledge and thank each of you who gave your time to ensure the success of this ministry, from distributing shoeboxes during each service, to packing a shoebox, to working at the Collection Center by packing shoeboxes into cartons and to lifting those cartons onto two trailers.

The list is extensive, as of Collection Monday, November 23, there were 61 volunteers, which included the youth groups from LBF and Moreno Christian Assembly, and a local Boy Scout Troop.

Thank you to:
Robin Crawford
Debbie Hutton
Tom De Koster
Cathy Kendall
Kathy Nauertz
Eric, Kirsten, Adam & Olson Grubb
Jeff & Nadine Dice
Helen Davis
Rob Vance
Bob Palmer
Dave & Myrle Pentz
Paul Barnhold
Joe & Debbie Ulrey
Glenn Hamilton
Gary, Laurie & Julie Root
Erik Jacobsen

Without all of your assistance, along with many others who volunteered and gave of their time, this project could not have been accomplished.  I hope that you were truly blessed by this experience as I was in sharing God’s love.

Thanks again for all of your help!

Jeff Crawford