The 2024 Operation Christmas Child shoe box drive came to a close Monday in Adair County and all across the United States. 3585 shoebox gifts were collected from Adair Countians at the Wheet Fellowship Hall of the Columbia First Church of the Nazarene.
We want to thank all of the individuals, churches, and organizations that made this year’s shoebox drive such a huge success. We also would like to give a special thanks to all of the volunteers that donated countless hours at the drop off center.
A special thanks to the Columbia First Church of the Nazarene for providing their Wheet Fellowship Hall during the eight days of collection. Also a special thanks to all of the coaches and athletes from Lindsey Wilson College and other individuals that loaded the boxes from Adair and surrounding counties on to Semi trailers.
The 3585 shoebox gifts surpassed last year’s total of 3300 Gospel Opportunities. It’s the most shoebox gifts collected in Adair County since 2016 when the county collected 3777 shoebox gifts.
Please pray for the boxes as they now make their way to the next stop of their journey. The boxes will make their way to the processing center in Charlotte, North Carolina. From there the boxes will make their way to children and families in countries all around the world.
Teresa Gaskins made the first drop off of the day on the final day of drop offs Monday, November 25. She dropped off shoebox gifts prepared by the Faith general Baptist church.
The Mount Hope Separate Baptist Church drops off their boxes in Russell County. However, these two boxes came in late so Sharon Harris dropped them off in Columbia on Monday morning.
Wendy Dykes drop off brought the total number of shoebox gifts collected to 3557.
The Glens Fork Church of Good News was the last church to drop off shoebox gifts in Adair County in 2024. Dropping off their shoebox gifts is Carol Klingberg.
Richie Melson turned out to be the final Adair County drop off Monday. He dropped off boxes from the Melson Ridge Community Church.
(Mark Fudge – Operation Christmas Child)