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| Volunteers packed 125 boxes for Operation Christmas Child during the East Village Promenade on November 21. |
As the East Village kicked off the holiday shopping season with the annual East Village Promenade on Friday evening, Walnut Creek Downtown hosted a gift-packing event for children in need.
Part of the church’s ongoing partnership with Operation Christmas Child, the event gave holiday shoppers and passersby an opportunity to enjoy a cup of hot chocolate while packing a gift for a child in an impoverished, war-torn country. More than 100 people came through the church’s doors Friday evening and packed a total of 125 boxes.
When combined with all congregations, Walnut Creek donated more than 250 gift-filled shoeboxes to Operation Christmas Child this season. This year, all boxes packed in Des Moines will be sent to children in one of five countries: Tanzania, Uganda, India, Belize or Trinidad and Tobago.
Earlier this year, Walnut Creek’s annual Christmas in July event resulted in 1,000 gifts being sent to children in countries with limited access to the Gospel.
Operation Christmas Child is a ministry of Samaritan’s Purse, an international Christian relief and evangelism organization headed by Franklin Graham. Since 1993, Operation Christmas Child has hand-delivered more than 100 million gift-filled shoeboxes to needy children in more than 130 countries. To learn more about Operation Christmas Child, visit www.samaritanspurse.org/occ/.
By Tim Laehn
Walnut Creek Downtown
