Volunteers make treasures for kids

Volunteers at Fellowship Baptist Church in Polson are getting an early start on the holiday season by collecting items that will go in shoe-box-sized treasure chest and given as gifts to needy children around the world.

Inside the red and green cardboard frame an opportunity awaits for volunteers to share good will and help someone they will likely never meet.

Rhonda Crowl of Polson knows the joy of those recipients firsthand. In her position as the Northwest Montana Area Operation Christmas Child coordinator, Crowl traveled to Haiti last year to watch children get their gift.

It was a big occasion, Crowl said.

“They go to places that have never seen anything like this,” Crowl said.

The children dressed in their very best outfits, borrowed clothes or whatever they could find to go to church, she said.

“We sang with them and gave them lots of love,” she said. “Then we told them the story of Jesus and how Jesus was a gift to us.”

Crowl said the children’s understanding of Jesus’ gift was astounding.

“They learn the idea that someone else in the world loves them like Jesus,” she said.

Once the story is told, and the stage is set, Crowl said a countdown begins.

And at just the right time, the children are given permission to open their gifts.

But Crowl said that in her Haiti experience, kids receiving their gift box did not tear paper off and throw trinkets into the air looking for something more. Instead, some peeked inside, then held it tight as if they did not believe their eyes. A moment later, another peek. And finally, the treasure chest was opened and each child found the treasures a complete stranger who loved them sent all the way to their neighborhood.

“Inside these boxes are treasures that they had never dreamed of,” Crowl said. 

Soap and a wash cloth is a universal favorite, she said.

One by one, children search their boxes. And because each and every box is created and packed individually, every gift is different.

Crowl said it is clear God uses people who pack these boxes to bless those who receive them.

One story that touched Crowl’s heart is that of an Operation Christmas Child box volunteer who, after praying about what to put in her box, felt strongly she needed to put a pair of orthopedic shoes inside. When the child who received that box found the shoes, his eyes filled with tears. It turned out he was in desperate need of orthopedic shoes and he and his guardians were praying for months that God would provide them.

“God builds these boxes for specific kids,” she said. “God knows exactly what those boxes need and they meet specific needs of the exact child they go to.”

At the event Crowl attended a young pregnant mother with three kids under four years old kneeled down near Crowl. The mother, overwhelmed with joy kept thanking box give-away organizers for their incredible gift.

Without the gift-box support, her children would have nothing, Crowl said.

Children become thrilled at seemingly commonplace things. 

School supplies are a bit hit. 

“Without school supplies they can’t go to school,” she said. “They can’t even imagine how exciting it will be to go to school.”

Plastic boxes are coveted by recipients, she said.

Reusable boxes mean that child or her family can use it for water, to eat from or a host of other purposes, she said.

But the joy does not stop at the box recipients, Crowl said.

As she was leaving Haiti, Crowl said she peeked into the door front of one recipient and saw that child with his box on the floor surrounded by his entire family, taking each item out one at a time and examining it.

But boxes don’t just go to places that most folks recognize. Many boxes are taken far into the back country.

They are taken by camel, by yak or on someone’s shoulders to wherever they are needed. 

Run by Samaritan’s Purse, Operation Christmas Child is a worldwide outreach.

The idea, introduced to the Polson congregation three years ago, is a growing success with an eternal impact.

In its first year collecting hand-built boxes, Fellowship Baptist Church volunteers sent off 197 boxes. In its second year, the group collected 279 boxes and now, in its third year, the group is hoping for more than 300 boxes. 

Though boxes are distributed throughout the world at different times of the year, they are collected in November throughout the charity organization.

Boxes are sent from church sites to relay centers. They are then sent to processing centers and destined for different places around the globe.

Though Polson volunteers don’t know where their boxes will go this year, they know that God is in charge, and their gifts will travel to the right boy or girl.

Fellowship Baptist Church boxes have traveled to Mexico and Mongolia so far.

Operation Christmas Child is open for all kinds of groups, all kinds of church denominations.

And packing a shoebox is easy. 

Volunteers choose whether their box will be delivered to a boy or girl, then choose their age category.

Boxes are filled with gifts that will be special to that child and is designed for the right age and sex. Shoeboxes can also have things like hygiene items and school supplies as well. 

Operation Christmas Child asks donors to include $7 for each box to help pay for shipping and before sending the box off to its recipient, organizers request that volunteers pray for that child, and maybe include a personal note.

Boxes are then sent to places around the globe.

Crowl said anyone interested in participating in next year’s Operation Christmas Child outreach can contact her through the church.