Transformation Thurrock : 687 shoeboxes are very appealing!

687 shoeboxes are very appealing!

Jean Catton of Grays Baptist Church tells Transformation Thurrock how this year’s Shoebox Appeal has been the most successful yet.

This year Samaritan’s Purse ‘Operation Christmas Child’ celebrates 20 years of sending shoeboxes packed full of gifts and goodies for distribution to some of the world’s poorest children, some of whom would never have received a gift before.

The organisation works through local churches and charities overseas to ensure that the shoeboxes are delivered by hand to the children that most need them, regardless of their background or beliefs. Shoeboxes are to countries in Africa, Eastern Europe and Central Asia - last year, 1.18million gift-filled shoeboxes were sent to these countries.

A variety of gifts are packed into the boxes, such as soft toys tennis balls, finger puppets, jigsaws, yoyos, small musical instruments, pens, pencils, sharpeners, colouring books, notepads, pencil cases, stickers and so on.

Toiletries are also placed in the boxes - toothbrushes, toothpaste, hairbrushes, combs, flannels and bars of soap. Also in the shoeboxes can be other items such as sweets, hates, gloves, scarves and sunglasses.

This year, Grays Baptist Church was again asked to be one of the official drop-off points for the Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes. GBC have been only too pleased to do this, as the receiving of a shoebox brings so much joy to the children who have so very little.

An amazing 687 shoeboxes were brought to the church, many from local schools and other churches, as well as individuals. This is a record amount of shoeboxes for Grays!

These were collected by Samaritan’s Purse volunteers last Friday (19 November) and taken to a warehouse in Chelmsford where each box is examined to see that the contents conform to the customs’ regulations. Then they’re all packed in containers and transported aboard to the various countries.

Thanks go to all who participated in the campaign this year and who brought shoeboxes to the church. Among the schools and churches who contributed to the 687 shoeboxes are:

The Grays School Media Arts College
Thameside Infant School
Treetops School
William Edwards School
Aveley Christian Centre
Belhus Park Chapel
Chafford Hundred Community Church
Corringham Baptist Church
Emmanuel Church and the Girl Guide Company, Chadwell St Mary
Grays Baptist Church
Socketts Heath Baptist Church

Pictures of the shoeboxes and some volunteers from GBC taken by Colin Baker, pastor at Grays Baptist Church. Jean Catton is wearing the pink jumper!

>>> The picture on the frontpage shows the Samaritan's Purse volunteers - sharp-eyed readers may have spotted one of them is Chas Musgrave, formerly of Emmanuel Christian Centre in Walthamstow, who for many years ran a Summer Youth Camp at Ashdown House School in East Sussex. Young people from Grays Pentecostal Church (as was) went there each year from 1995 to 2000.

Jean Catton, 23/11/2010