Christmas is just over a month away, but many folks have been preparing all year for a special Christmas mission project. Bladen and Columbus County citizens have been plugging away to spread the love with Samaritan’s Purse Operation Christmas Child.
Fellowship Bible Church is a Central Drop Off site for Operation Christmas Child. Pat Warrick, the local Coordinator for the mission work, and Lynn Ransom, helping with Church Relations, assist with the mission in Bladen and Columbus Counties. Warwick explained the boxes are not only collected by churches.
Boy Scouts, non-profit groups, organizations and businesses help every year with this non-denominational mission to spread the Word and Love using gift giving and prayer. The boxes contain gifts for boys and girls from ages 2 years old up to 14 years old.
Last year over 11,400 boxes were collected in Bladen County adding to the over 11 million total collected last year. Marie Jackson, another volunteer with Operation Christmas Child in Bladen County, said we hope to at least collect as many boxes as we did last year. “We have already started collecting items for next year’s boxes,” Marie added.
Monday, November 13th, was the first day for collecting the containers packed with care in the two counties. Time to pack the boxes and have them dropped off in time for this year’s shipment is drawing to a close, but there is still time to donate to the cause.
If you would like to pack a box, visit https://www.samaritanspurse. org/what-we-do/operation- christmas-child/, for information on how to pack the box. Then, drop your newly packed box off at a church participating in the operation or at our local Central Drop Off site, Fellowship Bible Church. The church is located at 2503 Waddell Drive in Elizabethtown.
The collections will be held from November 13th until November 19th. The volunteers will be available to collect the boxes Monday through Friday 4 p.m. until 7 p.m., Saturday 10 am -1 pm and Sunday 2 p.m. until 5 p.m.
Will Bladen and Columbus County collect over 11,000 Christmas boxes this year? We will let you know after all the boxes have been collected next week.
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