Operation Christmas Child 

Get involved!  Click here to 'BUILD A BOX' 

One of the greatest pleasures we have had over the past eight years is to participate with Samaritans Purse and Operation Christmas Child. In 2024, here in Marion & Citrus counties 23,744 shoebox gift boxes were collected at seven different drop-off locations from 116 area churches. We eagerly anticipate seeing how God will advance His Kingdom through shoebox gifts this year. Last year 5 million children were discipled through the 12-week Greatest Journey Curriculum, and over 2.9 million made decisions for Christ!

The mission of Operation Christmas Child is to demonstrate God’s love in a tangible way to children in need around the world. Through this project, Samaritan’s Purse partners with the local church worldwide to share the Good News of Jesus Christ and make disciples of the nations.  The Greatest Journey is a 12-lesson discipleship course designed for Operation Christmas Child shoebox recipients. Children who participate in the program learn how to follow Christ and share Him with others. As they do, entire families and communities are transformed by the power of the Gospel, and churches are started.

Shoebox gifts go to the ends of the earth to children in some of the hardest-to-reach places—whether deep jungles, city slums, steep mountainsides, or one of 1,000 remote Pacific islands.  Many of these areas are resistant to the Gospel, for cultural or religious reasons, and are home to numerous unreached people groups, some of whom have never heard the Name of Jesus Christ.

Operation Christmas Child 2024 Overview