The
churches that participate in the Operation Christmas Child ministry each year
must send representatives to attend an all-day orientation and information
session about the ministry. Our desire
is that each participating church not only understands the purpose of the
shoebox gifts (to share the Gospel with children), but is also trained and
equipped to do so. At the orientation
sessions, we teach church representatives how to plan and direct
a children´s
evangelistic outreach event, how to present the Gospel in a concise,
child-friendly, Biblical way, and how to correctly distribute the shoebox gifts
(example: no charging money for the gifts, no opening the gifts beforehand,
always giving the shoebox together with a Gospel booklet , etc.)
So
far this year, we have held three all-day orientation sessions in different
areas.
Amazingly, we have had such a
great response from the local churches this year!
At the first two information sessions, we
actually had to close the registration area an hour into the event, as too many
churches were signing up! (Fortunately, the churches that don´t participate
this year will have the opportunity to participate next year).
The
most exciting event for us was in
the El Seco region of Puebla, which is
receiving the Operation Christmas Child ministry for the first time this year:
the church representatives were so excited about and grateful for the ministry
that they arrived early to the training session, and had tamales prepared for
everyone, and stayed afterwards to thank us for this ministry arriving at their
area! (We, of course, feel so unworthy of thanks- as all the donations come
from loving churches
in the United States! All the Glory is for God!)
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