Operation Christmas Child

Advent calendar verses from yesterday and today:

The mountain of the house of the Lord… all the nations shall flock to it, and many peoples shall come. Isaiah 2:2-3

After me comes he who is mightier than I… he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. Mark 1:7-8

Each year we participate in Operation Christmas Child. We pack a box for a little boy Gabe’s age and for the past two years we make a little girl one for Julia to give too. It is so exciting and fun to put together a special gift to share the love of Jesus with a child in need! Gabe also got to contribute to and help pack two extra boxes this year: one in his Cubbies group and one in his Mission Friends class.  Since I co-teach a Mission Friends class, we let the kids in our class help decorate our boxes this year with Christmas gift wrap as a group project. After the boxes have been collected, I bring Gabe into the sanctuary at church to show him all the boxes the church members gave. Every year, a group of volunteers from our church travel to Atlanta to a large collection site where they help prepare the boxes to be shipped out. This year my sister went and last year my dad went. When the kids get older I hope we can go too. I think this is such an excellent ministry and I plan to get involved every Christmas!