Operation Christmas Child

This Christmas, consider giving the gift of joy.

Tuesday, May 2, 2018 A cargo plane from Samaritan's Purse loaded with disaster relief supplies landed on the island of Kauai. Folks from churches all over the island came to help unload and transport to the impact zone on the North Shore.

One of the volunteers was Mike Ensman from Breath of Life Christian Ministries. According to Mike, Samaritan's Purse is involved in more than disaster relief. He knows this because he and his wife Christina are coordinators for Operation Christmas Child, (Mike says, his wife is the coordinator and he is the strong back).

They have been in this leadership position for seven years and meet monthly with the core team on Kauai. Christmas Child starts with the willingness to fill a shoe box with items to delight a child in over 100 countries at the celebration. One size does not fit all; the box is destined for a boy, or a girl in an 2 - 4, 5 - 9, or 10 - 14, age bracket; what child do you visualize?

Imagine that child receiving their box, It could be the first Christmas present they have ever received. The local coordinators in that country bring the children together, each child matched to a carefully screened shoebox, and then in that language 1, 2, 3 and they open their boxes. Wow, a stuffed toy animal, or soccer ball with pump, something incredible! There is also a booklet, The Greatest Gift, the good news of Jesus Christ in the appropriate language.  This will be a foundation for future evangelism work.

The core volunteers on Kauai work around the year collecting items, reaching out to local churches, but show time is November. The boxes go from distributed collection points to the central location, get inspected, sorted, loaded and shipped. One of the unique characteristics of the ministry is the work stoppage every hour to pray for the children. If you attend church regularly, the odds are good there is already a point of contact there. If not, visit: https://www.facebook.com/BreathofLifeChristianMinistries/