Senior Living

Next year Operation Christmas Child will celebrate its 30th anniversary. Franklyn Graham, son of the late Billy Graham, is president of Samaritan’s Purse, a Christian missionary organization that delivers humanitarian aid to over 100 countries.

One of the many projects of Samaritan’s Purse is called Operation Christmas Child.

This project has delivered close to 150 million shoe boxes filled with toys and gifts to needy children all over the world since 1990.

Each box also contains literature about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

There may also be a picture or personal letter from the giver of the box which has produced some amazing stories of shared Christian love across thousands of miles.

More than 500,000 volunteers worldwide, with more than 150,000 of those in the United States, are involved in collecting, shipping, and distributing the shoe boxes.

Although the name is Operation Christmas Child, the magnitude of this project requires delivery processing throughout the entire year. But now is the time to get involved.

Most churches in the Lexington area will participate in this annual event. Many families have made it a holiday tradition to touch the lives of children around the world with the gift of love.

I will also be taking a group of senior adults to Charlotte in December to work for a day in the nation’s largest Operation Christmas Child processing center.

Doing this in the name of Jesus is akin to keeping the Biblical principle that Jesus set forth when he said, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”

Lexington Baptist Church on Main Street is a collection site. Check with your own church to see how you can participate.

Next Week: Proverbs to live by

Dan Williams is the senior adult pastor at Lexington Baptist Church.