Operation Christmas Child

December 11, 2013

For the past four years (minus one year in there because of bad weather and no more boxes) our small group from church has traveled to Minneapolis, Minnesota to help in the processing center for Operation Christmas Child. For those of you who have not heard of this it is a ministry by Franklin Graham. People pack a shoebox with items such as: toys, clothing, personal hygiene items, candy, etc. to be sent somewhere around the world to bee given to those children who have nothing. So, at the processing plant it is our job to go through all those boxes to make sure that there are no inappropriate items sent. This is a lot of fun. You get to inspect every box - so I am always finding new things to pack in our shoeboxes that we do at home. They have quite the process to do all of this - there are over 750,000 boxes they inspect just at the Minnesota center. The first person gets the shoebox out of the larger carton and their only job is to look for money. Usually they are looking for the envelope of money to pay for shipping - but they are also to make sure there is not any other extra money in the box. Then that person passes it down the line to the inspectors. These are the people that actually go through the whole entire box. They look for liquids, food items and other inappropriate items. If there are any things that need to be taken out - there are filler items that can be added to the box. Once they are done it goes to the taper. This person tapes the box shut. They make sure not to cover the label especially those that paid on line - there is a barcode that needs to be scanned - so taping over it could interfere with the scanning. After the taper there are people who put the shoeboxes in bigger boxes - sorted by gender and age. So, for example, they will have a large box for girl 2-4 and a large box for boy 2-4. Once they fit 15 or more in a box they send it on down the line to be put in the truck. The shoeboxes we were inspecting Saturday night were going to India. They were trying to set a new record of doing 60,000 boxes. Our shift ended before we found out if we accomplished the goal. Our trip up to Minnesota usually consists of a stop at IKEA and the Mall of America. And of course we usually eat pretty good too! The time away really bonds the group - we tend to have a lot of fun and great conversation!!