Posted on 12/01/2012 9:26:57 AM PST by DeaconBenjamin
Operation Christmas Child is a rewarding deed and will change the lives of many children around the world, according to Nashville Collection Center Coordinator Beverly Starr.
This year was extremely successful for the Nashville and the collection area. Volunteers gathered a record 10,202 shoeboxes. They also took an additional 21 late boxes to Boone, N.C., with them.
The total number of shoeboxes collected worldwide won’t be known until the middle of December.
The goal for this area was 7,500 shoeboxes, and obviously, OCC exceeded this goal for the year, shattering the old record of 7,340 set in 2011.
Starr said, “We have volunteers from the community who work all year. We probably had around 12 or 14 who helped through Collection Week [Nov. 12-19]. Some of the men from the Mennonite community helped two days in loading the big shipping boxes onto 18-wheelers. We couldn’t have done without them and they are a blessing to us.”
The shipping process of these shoeboxes to the different places is quite simple. “The shoeboxes go to over 100 different countries. Yesterday, the boxes that we processed are going to Burkina Faso [in West Africa]. Today, and each day, it will probably go to a different country,” Starr said.
When the boxes arrive at their destination, international partners of Samaritan’s Purse, as well as volunteers from the U.S., distribute the boxes.
“Sometimes, some distributions may be delayed until March or April, depending on circumstances,” Starr said. These circumstances would include getting through customs in many countries.
Every day shipping containers are shipped from the processing centers, as they are loaded. At 7 o’clock last Tuesday night, 25,000 shoeboxes had been processed that day in Boone. The last shift ended at 10 p.m. Throughout this year, 675,000 boxes will be processed in Boone.
Around 6.5 million will be processed in the U.S., and in the U.S. and internationally, more than 9 million shoeboxes will be processed.
The 100millionth shoebox will be distributed somewhere in the world from the 2012 collection.
“The shoeboxes are a tangible way to let impoverished and destitute children all over the world know that someone loves them and wants to provide for them what they can’t provide for themselves or that their families can’t provide,” Starr said, “It is amazing when you see thousands and thousands of shoeboxes at the processing center, knowing that they will soon be in the hands of children all over the world.”
Local volunteers will probably begin working again in February. Of course, during the Black Friday sales, some people already started shopping for Operation Christmas Child.
Starr said, “One of the perks of working at the Boone, N.C., processing center is that it is in the beautiful mountains of North Carolina. Tours of the Samaritan’s Purse headquarters can be made while working at the processing center.”
OCC volunteers are always some of the first to respond in some way to any major disaster in the United States, as well as abroad. The latest has been Hurricane Sandy, Starr said.
Operation Christmas Child has been a very successful organization, helping millions of children around the world to enjoy some pleasures of life.
Good for them.
I no longer contribute to charity of any sort. Zilch.
The Indolent class relies upon assistance from many sources for all their needs. Government, private sector, friends, and relatives may all contribute. The Indolent conducts their life with assistance from others factored in to all they do.
The Indolent is additionally freed from the outcomes of their choices and behaviors. Somebody else will fix what they break. Somebody else will feed the mouths they create. Indolents are never to blame for creating their misfortunes. Indolents are freed from the Cause and Effect relationships of life.
The question becomes - How can anyone learn from experience when they are purposely excluded from responsibility? What motivation will curb their appetites when nothing stands to impede their appetites?
This is why most Indolents remain on public assistance from others all their lives. They learn from birth that others will care for them. Laws require the government intervene. Citizens and non-citizens who refuse to care for themselves, or are unable to negotiate life, receive subsidy. For some Indolents, the welfare level of income, a level classified by government as poverty, is sufficient and preferred to working. The Indolent prefers free time to do what they wish, over finding gainful employment that requires their time. Many adopt crime as a means of supplementing their incomes.
The Indolent is a Progressive Democrat mainstay and I will not enable it.
This includes tithes to the church. I have told my church finance committee that I will tithe enough to support the operations of the local building and grounds only, I will not enable their outreach programs.
I am done with it all.
Just what is a ‘shoebox’ anyway?
I agree with you when it comes to the American “poor,” because compared with 3rd world poverty the poorest Americans are rich beyond belief. But Operation Christmas child sends poor African etc kids little things like toothbrushes, and pencils, which they accept with gratitude and wide-eyed wonder. This would not occur in the United States inner cities and we all know it. So I much prefer overseas charity to U.S. charity, even though I love my country above all others. Just a thought. . .the world’s truly poor people are not exactly indolent, just born in a desperately poor environment with wicked governments.
A real shoebox, or even better a box from a pair of boots packed as full as you can stuff it with things like crayons, paper, small toys such as yoyos, small games, hygiene items such as tooth brushes and toothpaste, even nderwear and flipflops since most of the boxes go to warmer climates. Those flipflops may be the only shores the child owns.
Wow, never thought in a million years I would see a newspaper from Nashville Arkansas on Freerepublic. My grand parents lived in that town from 1952 to 1992. Not many Thanksgivings went by in those days without me being up there with my relatives.
I agree. The receivers of all this charity is the 47%. They have no want or need to better themselves because everything is provided. And unfortuantely, their offspring is learning from young on how to play the system. I did however donate to the dollar store - Operation Homefront or something like that, they provide for families of troops. I also donate to people I know who have a rough time. I have the satisfaction of knowing that $20 is going to a good cause.
That’s really sad for many reasons and way too broad a brush...there are many things people need charity that have nothing to do with irresponsibility or things they had any control over, especially young children. You seem to have lost all concept of what charity is.
It is certainly not relevant to Operation Christmas Child and what it does.
I have not lost what charity is.
What has been lost, is the spirit that I once had for helping my fellow man. The election of 2012 demonstrated that the spirit of charity, is enabling those who are little more than thieves.
The beneficiaries of the charity mentioned in the article are also recipients of money extorted at the point of a gun from your fellow citizens.
The democRATS refuse to require making the Indolent “Earn” what is given them. Requiring the Indolent change their behaviors, and end their acts of procreation, until they are self sufficient, is never considered. Intolerance, insensitive, and now often racism, is accused to silence objections. Indolents are treated as special citizens. The Indolent and their offspring are given special privileges the working class must earn for themselves and their family. Free school lunches, rent subsidies, job training (if they bother to show up), education benefits, and other perks, are provided to Indolents at no cost. Some communities require new development to include Low-Income sections as a requirement for the development. This often includes that the developer provide community centers, expensive design features, and maintenance - at no cost to the Indolent. In some instances, the Indolent has a higher standard of living than a working family.
The Indolent’s lower income is generally a result of the Indolent’s: inaction, personal behaviors, and/or unwillingness to dedicate ones self to improvement. Higher incomes requires a work ethic, dedication to employment, work experience/training, and consistently pursing a traditional path of employment. Education, good work habits, personal appearance, and hygiene are the basics.
The Indolent either refuses to modify their personal behaviors to earn a higher income, or the higher income remains beyond their grasp because they refuse to dedicate themselves to earn it. However, the disparity between the Indolent’s income and the average working citizen’s, provides the Indolent (and Democrat politicians) a grievance to complain they aremistreated...discriminated...
I believe the time has come to let those who are poor and disadvantage find out first hand what eactaly that means. That includes their children.
By your charity you have shown them that there is some chump who will give them what they do not have, and they don’t even have to be penitant to grateful.
Does this church require any reciprocal action on the part of the recipient? I doubt it. And that is exactly why I have stopped giving. God helps those who help themselves etc.etc. That does not mean help themselves to the property of others through government theft. Your actions are in fact aiding those who voted on Nov 6, 2012 to sanction more government theft.
Progressive Democrats use the word Justice to commit a crime.
Fairness is achieved when the Democrat concludes the theft and gives a portion of what is robbed to another who promises to vote for them.
Punishing the working class/tax payers enables the Democrat to rally the Indolents to despising the people whose income is taken for their benefit. The Indolent never says thank you, or appreciates what is given them. Their greed and envy is Justified - according to Progressives. Progressives consider any difference in income is unfair whether the income is earned or stolen.
Fairness...in this theory, is only achieved when all citizens have identical spending power...regardless. If the citizen lifts a finger to earn the money, or not, is irrelevant. In this theory, the tax payer is obligated to earn enough for two families - his own and the Indolent’s. Justice is done when the Producer/Tax Payer is robbed of his total income so his spending power is reduced to the Indolent’s, and, the Indolent’s income increases to match the Producer/Tax payer - in the name of Fairness.
The time has come let those who are poor face the consequences of their choices and that should include their children.
I sorta guessed that, but thanks for the clarification.
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