Westside Baptist Church filled shoe boxes with gifts for Samaritan’s Purse Operation Christmas Child.

Through Operation Christmas Child, Samaritan’s Purse partners with churches across the country to send gifts to children in need across the globe. This program is one of Westside Baptist Church’s outreach ministries.

Individuals are encouraged to participate by dropping off filled shoeboxes at the Word of Hope World Outreach Church in New Iberia. The national collection week for Operation Christmas Child runs from Nov. 13 through Nov. 20. Shoeboxes collected go out to more than 170 countries around the world.

For information on how to pack a shoebox including approved items, visit www.samaritanspurse.org/operation-christmas-child.

If someone can’t fill their own shoebox of gifts, they can participate another way. For $25, anyone can build and pay for a shoebox online at www.samaritanspurse.org/operation-christmas-child/buildonline/.

The building process is simple, starting with gender and age selection. It allows you to add essentials and choose from select items including dolls, soccer balls and stuffed animals. People can choose to include a note and image with the box as well.

Operation Christmas Child started in 1993, when then president of Samaritan’s Purse, Franklin Graham received a call from a man in England asking if Samaritan’s Purse would be willing to fill boxes with gifts for kids in Eastern Europe. Since then, they’ve sent shoeboxes to kids around the world each year, reaching more than 209,000,000 kids.