Operation Christmas Child

For over two decades, members of First Baptist Church of Garden City have packed shoeboxes that have been sent all over the world on a mission to share Jesus with the nations. Most years we send more than 150 boxes from our church alone.

Throughout the year, our members collect items and give money for items to be purchased (See the list of needs on this page). In October or November of each year, we hold a Packing Party to fill each box. In recent years, our boxes are stuffed so full of wonderful toys and gifts to the children!

Mark your calendar and plan to participate:
OCC Packing Party & Chili Supper
Sunday, November 12, 2023

The night of the Packing Party, we also have a chili supper to help raise the money to send these boxes. After our boxes are sent, we haul them to a collection center where they are then shipped to the Atlanta processing center.

We have taken adults and teenagers to processing centers in Atlanta and Charlotte where boxes are checked to make sure they don’t contain items that should not be sent (things that cause issues at customs) before being loaded on trucks and shipped out.

Some of our members, while on mission trips overseas, have seen shoeboxes being distributed and have even met people whose lives have been transformed by Christ… all through a simple shoebox. Join us and pack a shoebox this year!

Updated Supply List

We are currently collecting the following items (and quantities) to prepare for this year’s OCC shoeboxes – you can purchase and donate or make a monetary gift and we will purchase them for you:

• 40ea. Coloring books
• 35ea. Picture books (ages 2-4)
• 32ea. Small water bottles (need to fit in box)
• 21ea. Marker or Colored pencil sets

History of OCC

In the summer of 1993, Samaritan’s Purse President Franklin Graham received a call from a man in England asking if he’d be willing to fill shoeboxes with gifts for children in war-torn Bosnia. Franklin Graham partnered with Calvary Church of Charlotte and with help from people from Canada, Samaritan’s Purse sent 28,000 shoebox gifts to children in the Balkans that Christmas.

Samaritan’s Purse has collected shoebox gifts filled with toys, school supplies, and hygiene items for children around the world. Since 1993, more than 198 million children in more than 170 countries and territories have received an Operation Christmas Child shoebox.

Seeking to follow Jesus’ command to “make disciples of all the nations” (Matthew 28:19), Samaritan’s Purse has trained over 1.5 million volunteers from these congregations to teach The Greatest Journey, our dynamic follow-up discipleship course for shoebox recipients.

Since 2009, 30.9 million children have enrolled in this 12-lesson program to learn how to follow Christ and share Him with others. More than 14.9 million of these boys and girls have made a decision to accept Jesus as their Savior during the course. Many are now praying for and sharing their faith with family and friends. As a result of this ever-expanding witness, new churches are starting and communities are being transformed!