With Christmas drawing near, Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) spread holiday cheer through Operation Christmas Child as their project for the month.

According to samaritanspurse.org, the goal of Operation Christmas Child is to demonstrate God’s love in a tangible way to needy children around the world.

They also strive to work together with local churches worldwide in order to help share the Good News of Jesus Christ by sending out shoeboxes to support children from other countries.

“We wanted [these needy children] to know that there are people out there who care about them,” said Tim Vosecky, senior and president of FCA.

For the event, FCA filled shoeboxes with toys, school supplies, and hygiene items for children from other countries who have never received Christmas presents before.

Members of FCA who wanted to volunteer for the event met on two different days to gather all the gifts and place them in shoeboxes.

“We prepared by having a packing party and invited people to bring all the [gifts] to send to the needy kids and organized them in shoeboxes,” said Joy Kim, senior and secretary of FCA.

“A couple weeks before party, some of us on leadership also stopped by the 99 cent store together to buy all the supplies,” Joy added.

Also, a couple of members were permitted to go to the warehouse where they shifted all the shoeboxes into different airplanes for the delivery of the boxes.

On Dec. 10, the shoeboxes had all been loaded onto the trucks where they were transmitted to the airport.

“We want to help kids around the world who don’t have the privilege of receiving gifts,” said Nathan Rickey, senior.

Along with brightening children’s lives with gifts, Operation Christmas Child aspires to serve a greater purpose as well.

While containing different presents for the unfortunate living around the world. Each box invests a fellowship opportunity for involved members to spread the word
of Jesus Christ.

As a result of this two-sided purpose, for 17 years now, Operation Christmas Child has been sharing gifts and the love of Jesus with needy children from various countries around the world.

Because of the many contributions made by groups like FCA, more than 8 million shoebox gifts were accumulated worldwide from the entire nation and 12 other countries last year.

“Our goal was to fill in at least 15 boxes and we had filled in 21 boxes. I’m really happy with the result,” said Kim.

The destination for the varies every year. Samaritanspurse.org states that more than 77 million gift-filled shoeboxes have been distributed to children in more than 130 countries internationally since the year of 1993.

When asked about how the experience impacted FCA, Kim elaborated, “I would say it was a very good experience for all of us. People got really into it and some people included personal letters in their boxes,”

Kim praised the students willingness to take part in the gift collection and the enthusiasm they showed in helping children around the world.

“Their hearts were really being poured into the boxes and it was evident that people wanted to make those children happy,” she added.

Although Operation Christmas Child had been FCA’s main project for the month, they also took part in visiting and helping at a children’s hospital as well.

Those who were involved in the visit to the hospital set apart time from their busy lives to brighten another less fortunate child’s day, which ties in with the purpose behind their bigger project.

“I can’t say I feel like I better person because of simply giving a child a Christmas gift,” said Ruth Kim, senior and FCA member.

”We live luxurious lives compared to many children... I’m fully aware of some of these kids’ hard lifestyles and the least I can do is drop a little present to at least try to make their Christmas a little happier.”