Operation Christmas Child coming to Sebring this month

Special to the News-Sun

SEBRING -- Christmas is arriving early all over Sebring, as a local church prepares to serve as a collection point for Operation Christmas Child. Soon, with the help of Sebring volunteers, the site will be brimming with festively wrapped shoe boxes full of gifts.

Donations can be taken to Bible Fellowship Church, 3750 Hammock Road in Sebring, from 8:30 a.m. until 5 p.m. Nov. 16-20 and from 2-4 p.m. Nov. 20-21.

Through Operation Christmas Child, the world's largest Christmas project, Sebring residents are packing shoe box gifts for children in more than 100 countries suffering from natural disaster, war, terrorism, disease, famine and poverty. From Sebring, the shoe box gifts will be sorted and sent using whatever means necessary -- sea containers, trucks, trains, airplanes, boats, camels, even dog sleds -- to reach suffering children around the world.

"Operation Christmas Child is a unique opportunity to do something as simple as packing a shoe box that will have a lasting impact on a child a world away," said Margaret Sager, Operation Christmas Child relay center coordinator. "We are excited about the 2009 collection season as many community members have already begun packing shoe box gifts."

Operation Christmas Child uses tracking technology that allows donors to "follow your box" to the destination country where it will be hand-delivered to a child in need. To register shoe box gifts and find out what country they are delivered to, use the EZ Give donation form found at www.samaritans purse.org.

This is Sebring's first year contributing to the Operation Christmas Child effort. This year, organizers hope to collect 500 gift-filled shoe boxes from families, kids, churches, schools and civic organizations in the area.

Since 1993, Operation Christmas Child, a project of international Christian relief and evangelism organization Samaritan's Purse, headed by Franklin Graham, has delivered more than 69 million gift-filled shoe boxes to needy children in some 130 countries.

For more information on how to participate in Operation Christmas Child, call (407) 852-3727 or visit www.samaritanspurse.org.