Local churches to send holiday gifts around the world

Date: 11/5/2019

GREATER SPRINGFIELD – Three churches in Hampden County are lending a hand in making sure children around the world will have a gift to open on Christmas.

The Cornerstone Church in East Longmeadow, Chicopee’s Pioneer Valley Baptist Chapel and the Moldovian Baptist Church of Agawam are all serving as three of the nearly 5,000 drop-off locations for Operation Christmas Child nationwide.

Operation Christmas Child began in 1993 a project of Samaritan’s Purse, a Christian organization with a mission of “providing spiritual and physical aid to hurting people around the world,” the organization’s website states.

Lucas Zellers, Media Relations Coordinator for Operation Christmas Child said that in 1990, a Welsh couple, Dave and Jill Cooke, began delivering shoeboxes filled with gifts to children in Romania. Three years later, Samaritan's Purse created Operation Christmas Child on that premise. Shoebox gifts are delivered to churches, orphanages and hospitals in 100 countries worldwide. In addition to gifts, each box includes a religious booklet titled “The Greatest Gift.”

“Operation Christmas Child is specifically about equipping local ministries in their countries,” Zellers said. Gift recipients are invited to participate in a discipleship program, “The Greatest Journey.”

The goal of the Western Massachusetts volunteer team is to collect 8,999 gifts during Operation Christmas Child’s national collection week, Nov. 18 through Nov. 25. The goal for worldwide collection is 11 million gifts.

Last year across the four counties in Western Massachusetts, 10,081 shoeboxes were collected, Louise Brown, a Western Massachusetts prayer mobilization coordinator said.

“Our hope is to increase by about 10 percent each year,” Brown said.

Zellers said the first step is to choose a gender and age range that you want your gift to go to, ages two to four, ages five to nine, and ages 10 to 14. He said “Ages and genders that receive more or less varies by year,” but last year boys ages 10 to 14 received the least number of boxes.

Zellers said people can use any shoebox or order one from samaritanspurse.org. He said items to put inside are usually one “wow gift,” such as a stuffed animal and other toys, toiletries and items.

Operation Christmas Child requests that certain items not be included in the shoeboxes, such as, candy; toothpaste; used or damaged items; war-related items such as toy guns, knives or military figures; seeds; chocolate or food; liquids or lotions; medications or vitamins; breakable items, such as snow globes or glass containers; or aerosol cans.

“The things we try to exclude are anything that can harm the child or the box,” Zellers said.

Brown said that drop off sites are sometimes volunteered by a church and other times the organization asks a church that was already packing boxes to become a drop-off site. She said that the Agawam church has been collecting for approximately three years, Chicopee has been collecting for about five years and­ East Longmeadow for about seven.

“They've really done a great job, collecting probably close to 1,500 boxes,” Brown said of Cornerstone Church in East Longmeadow.

You can drop off shoes boxes at the three churches at the following times:

 Pioneer Valley Baptist Chapel, 56 Perkins St., Chicopee

• Nov. 18: 4:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.
• Nov. 19: 4:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.
• Nov. 20: 3:00 p.m. - 5 p.m.
• Nov. 21: 4:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.
• Nov. 22: 3 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
• Nov. 22: 6 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.
• Nov. 23: 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
• Nov. 23: 3 p.m. - 6 p.m.
• Nov. 24: 4 p.m. - 6 p.m.
• Nov. 25: 3 p.m. - 5 p.m.

Cornerstone Church, 15 Kibbe Rd., East Longmeadow

• Nov. 18: 11 a.m. - 2 p.m.
• Nov. 19: 11 a.m - 2 p.m.
• Nov. 20: 11 a.m. - 2 p.m.
• Nov. 21: 11 a.m. - 2 p.m.
• Nov. 22: 4 p.m. - 7 p.m.
• Nov. 23: 11 a.m. - 2 p.m.
• Nov. 24: 1 p.m. - 4 p.m.
• Nov. 25: 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.

Moldovian Baptist Church, 66 Bridge St., Agawam

• Nov. 18: 10 a.m. - 1 p.m.
• Nov. 18: 5 p.m. - 8 p.m.
• Nov. 19: 5 p.m. - 8 p.m.
• Nov. 20: 5 p.m. - 8 p.m.
• Nov. 21: 5 p.m. - 8 p.m.
• Nov. 22: 4 p.m. - 9 p.m.
• Nov. 23: 12 p.m. - 4 p.m.
• Nov. 24: 1 p.m. - 6 p.m.
• Nov. 25: 12 p.m. - 5 p.m.