What Is a Shoebox Packing Party?

Our church is trying something new this year - a Shoebox Gift Packing Party. Read on and watch the video to get the background and see a very large packing party in action.

The year 2009 represents the fourth year for our church (First Baptist, Pawnee, OK) to formally participate in Operation Christmas Child. (Our efforts for 2006, 2007, and 2008 are briefly summarized here, here, and here.)

Our local organizers have proposed a 'Shoebox Gift Packing Party' for several reasons:

1. It can be a fun fellowship time with a missions emphasis.
2. It can foster new participation in the Shoebox gift program, especially for those limited with available time or resources.
3. It can introduce an 'economy of scale' to increase the number of children that can be positively impacted by this program.

This 'Shoebox Packing Party' is not a substitute for the regular shoebox gift giving by our participants. It is a SUPPLEMENTAL activity created for the reasons above.

But, now to return to the title of the entry - What is a Shoebox Packing Party? It will be a defined time for our church to come together and package 30 boxes - assembly line style - using resources donated by our church family - one box of crayons and one stuffed animal at a time. The embedded video - provided courtesy of Operation Christmas Child - shows what one Shoebox Gift Packing Party might look like. In this case, they package 2000 boxes. Enjoy!