Christmas comes early

Posted · 2 Comments

Christmas Comes EarlyEvery July we do a special collection at church to raise the funds we need for the shipping costs of our Operation Christmas Child boxes. Each box costs $7 for Samaritan’s Purse to ship. So this year with our goal being 200 boxes, we needed $1400. Our church is small and we figured that raising that much money in one month was a little overwhelming. So we started talking about it in March and asked people to start giving. Some people gave a little every month and by the time July rolled around we had already raised more than half of the $1400! God truly blessed us and we raised more than our goal which allowed us to purchase the rest of the plastic shoe boxes we needed and the socks and t-shirts as well.

July 2013 007 August 2013 028 Amanda and I took time to go through all of our supplies and organize as I was able to get a whole shopping cart full of toys at the beginning of July, at the Target One Spot on clearance, of course. We counted how many socks and shirts we already had and updated our toy count. We do this a couple of times a year to make sure we know what to focus on buying for our boxes. Right now we are in need of toothpaste. The past couple years we were able to get donations from a local dentist but they aren’t getting any more toothpaste samples from the manufacturer anymore. So we are going to do a special collection for toothpaste in the month of September.

August 2013 014One item we still need some more of is Ivory soap. Today I was at Dollar Tree picking up more combs and I realized they had Ivory soap 3 packs now! This is great because they also take manufacturer’s coupons. So make sure you get your Ivory soap for the boxes you are packing. It is the least smelly soap and it floats! You might not think about your soap floating but many children that receive these boxes bathe in rivers or lakes and that is a big benefit.

Last but not least, with the school year starting there are good deals on school supplies and soon at Target some of it will go on clearance. Last year I was able to get lots of composition books that had flexible covers that were perfect for our boxes. Make sure you check out the clearance you never know what you will find.

MeTell me if you have any other great deals you are getting for your Operation Christmas Child boxes!

2 Responses to "Christmas comes early"
  1. Rhonda says:

    Y’all sound like my kind of shoppers. Get chummy with the people at target, last year I got spirals for .03 at the very end of the school supply clearance, bought 4 cases, use for shoe boxes and for school.
    I don’t suppose y’all are in southeast texas? might be able to help with the toothpaste.

    • admin says:

      Thanks for the tip Rhonda. I know my Target pretty well but I do need to “make friends” with people in charge. Good tip. We are in Central Florida. But appreciate the offer with the toothpaste. I am confident that our church will be able to help supply the need this year. We know that God wants these boxes packed and He always provides a way. One year we forgot that we had put a box of toys up in the attic and finally remembered and we were able to pack 20 more boxes. Have you ever volunteered at the processing center? I have been doing it for a couple years now. They are opening one in Dallas/Fort Worth this year. If you can go even for one day I would suggest it. It is an amazing experience to see God’s hand at work and learn more about Operation Christmas Child. I won’t be able to go this year because our Little One will be arriving right around that time.

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