Operation Christmas Child offers volunteer team opportunities

Each April is National Volunteer Month, and St. Charles County residents have an opportunity to join a local volunteer team making a difference in children’s lives around the world in Jesus’ name.

Each year, approximately 150,000 U.S. volunteers help transform empty shoeboxes into tangible expressions of God’s love by packing them with toys, school supplies and hygiene items. Operation Christmas Child, a project of Samaritan’s Purse, partners with local churches worldwide to deliver the gifts to children suffering from poverty, natural disaster, war, terror, disease and famine. For many of those children, it is the first gift they have ever received.

“National Volunteer Month is a great time to become a part of this international project,” said Jennifer Fay, who heads up the local St. Charles MO Area Team for Operation Christmas Child. “Joining an Operation Christmas Child Area Team is an amazing way to give back year-round and share God’s love with children in need.”

To learn more about joining the St. Charles MO Area Team or to apply for leadership opportunities, visit samaritanspurse.org/volunteerwithOCC. Contact Jennifer Fay at jen.fay@charter.net or call 636-328-7871 for more information.

Operation Christmas Child has delivered more than 157 million gift-filled shoeboxes to children in more than 160 countries since 1993. This year, the St. Chalres MO Area Team (which covers St. Charles, Warren, Lincoln and Montgomery counties) hopes to collect 19,400 shoebox gifts to contribute to the 2018 global goal of reaching more than 11 million children in need.

Operation Christmas Child is a project of Samaritan’s Purse, an international Christian relief and evangelism organization headed by Franklin Graham. The mission of Operation Christmas Child is to demonstrate God’s love in a tangible way to children in need around the world, and together with the local church worldwide, to share the news of Jesus Christ.