A few years ago I started taking part in Operation Christmas Child. The organization Samaritan's Purse, a christian relief and evangelism organization, runs Operation Christmas Child. This program uses the gift of a shoe box to demonstrate God's love to needy children all over the world and to share the good news of Jesus Christ (as stated on their website).
Before filling a shoe box, you have to decide whether or not you want to make one for a boy or a girl. Then you have to decide on what age you are going to make one for. The age categories are 2-4, 5-9, or 10-14. Then you fill your shoes box with hygiene items, schools supplies, candy, and toys (and enclose a $7 dollar donation to help cover shipping of the shoe box). Then find a drop of center to drop your shoe box off at.
I thought this year would be a good year to get my son involved. This was a good opportunity to teach him about helping others, to spend time together, and to share something I am passionate about with him. It wasn't just something that I could sit and tell him about, it was something he could actually help with. I figure children are never to early to start getting involved and helping those in need.
First, I explained the concept to him. I told him how he has nice clothes, a warm home, and food to eat, and that some kids don't have these things. I also told him he has so many people in his life that love him and want to bless him with gifts (i.e. toys) and that there are children that don't have toys to play with. Lastly, and most importantly, I told him that he is blessed to attend church and learn about Jesus and that not everyone knows Jesus.
Oddly, he seemed to understand somewhat all that I explained to him. Then I asked if he wanted to help me buy stuff to put in a box for a child somewhere so that they could have a special gift and learn about Jesus. He was very excited about this.
So with that we set off to buy items for the boxes. I was a little apprehensive about the second part of the project. Would he loose sight of the goal and want to buy things for himself? Would he be upset when we got home and he couldn't play with the toys we bought for the children? But even if all that (and more) went wrong, it would be a good lesson for him to learn.
We went to the Dollar Tree and got a shopping cart. He was excited to push it around the store. They had candy up front, so he helped me pick some out and happily threw it into the cart. The toys aisle came next. He picked up anything and everything that looked interesting to him and kept saying, "The little boy would like this mommy!". Unfortunately, not everything he picked up was appropriate for the age category we were doing or for the guidelines that Samaritan's Purse set. So I tried to steer him towards certain items and let him pick the colors/characters that he wanted to send the kids. All and all, he did surprisingly well (except for the part where he picked up a small bat and a bouncy ball, threw the ball into the air, swung at it, actually made contact, and sent the ball flying into one of the shelves...but I wasn't going to mention that). He only asked for one thing while we were in the toy aisle.
Next we did school supplies which he actually liked to help pick out (since he is getting into coloring and doing crafts more and more). Lastly, we did the hygiene items which he couldn't have cared less about. At the checkout he did ask for candy. When I told him he couldn't have any, he asked me why. I reminded him that this shopping trip wasn't about him, it was about the kids we were sending shoe boxes to. He actually left it at that.
Once home he was so excited to show Anthony all the stuff we had bought and then pack it into the shoe boxes. He helped "pack" them (he just threw everything in, I had to go back and make everything actually fit in the box).
My son surprised me on so many levels. His genuine excitement to buy stuff for the boxes was infectious, though I still wonder if he really understood we were helping others. And I was surprised at how well he handled himself, hardly asking for anything for himself (which is hard for a kid, because everything is so "me" oriented at this age) and for not having a meltdown when he couldn't eat the candy or play with the toys we bought for the kids. Maybe he is saving the tantrum for next year, or maybe he just understood more that I give him credit for and really wanted to help. Regardless, I was really proud of him and I think it was a good first experience in giving back for him.
Here is what we did this year. We packed two shoes boxes. One for a girl (age 2-4) and one for a boy (age 2-4). We bought all of our items at Dollar General. I know that some people will read that and think we are being cheap, and that's fine if they want to think that. Dollar general actually has quality (some name brand) hygiene items, candy, and school supplies, not really any different than what you would find at Walmart. Toys can get a little questionable, but they do have great items (a lot of classic toys) if you just take the time to look at them.
We packed the same thing for the girl and the boy because, especially young children, really like a lot of the same things regardless of gender (though we bought different colors/characters based on gender and I did include some hair bows for the little girl). Here is what we packed in our shoe boxes:
Wash Cloth
2 bars of Soap
2 toothbrushes
Toothpaste
Comb/Brush
Notebook
Pencil Case
Pencils
Erasers
Colored Pencils
Pencil Sharpener
Crayons
Candy
Car
Comeback Ball (ball with wrist strap on an elastic string)
Tambourine
Slinky
Top
Squishy/Puffer Ball
Mini Chalkboard with Chalk
Stuffed Animal
Bouncy Ball
Play-Doh
Jump Rope
I usually like to include a coloring book and a puzzle, but I couldn't find any that I liked this year. There are two new things that I am excited about this year. First, they have a sheet you can print out called "all about me". Your child fills in the blanks and tells all about him/herself so that the child receiving the shoe box can learn about the person who sent it. You can even include a picture and a mailing address so that the person can write back if possible. Second, if you give your seven dollar donation online, they will e-mail you a special label with a bar code to put on your shoe box so that you can find out what country your shoe box went to.
If you would like more information on Operation Christmas Child, you can visit www.samaritanspurse.com/occ. There you can find information on how to pack a shoe box, what to include (and not include), and where you can drop them off at.
Sincerely,
The mom who seriously hopes no one saw her child hit a ball in the store...sigh
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