Shoebox Warehouse

This year, we had a wonderful opportunity to take a family tour of one of the warehouses where shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child are processed. There are only about six warehouses across the country, so we knew this would be a very special opportunity. One day, they opened the warehouse up to families to see what happens to a shoebox once it gets to the warehouse. We were really looking forward to it.


We began by adding our boxes to the stack as we walked in. They were so excited to make the stack just a little bit bigger. You could see all of the stations for the inspectors of the box laid out throughout the huge warehouse. Our first activity was to watch the new Veggie Tale movie - Saint Nicholas, A Story of Joyful Giving. They had a TV showing the movie that talks about the historical person of Saint Nicholas and how he gave to other because God gave to him.

From there, our tour began. The first section was "The Journey of a Shoebox". The leader picked kids from the group to play various parts of the journey. Ansleigh got to play a part of the poor children in a needy county. Trinity and Kalyn got to play parts of the shoebox inspectors.

The next stop was a relay race. We broke out into teams of 10 and everyone was given a picture of something that needs to be added to or taken out of the shoebox. Then we had to run down to put 10 pieces of candy to add to the boxes. Each time, we had to run crazy - like ducks one time and jump from x to x the next race. Lots of fun to do and watch.

The next stop was an example of a worship service and shoebox receiving in Panama. We viewed a video that included interviews with pastors and children in Panama that had been impacted by the shoeboxes. We learned a song and motions in Spanish. The kids had fun with the motions. I felt kind of bad for the leader - each time she began to sing the song, another station began their Christmas carol singing (complete with keyboard playing). As if singing a Spanish song wasn't hard enough, try singing with "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" as background music.

Finally, we ended with some goodies and carolling. A good ending. On the way out, the kids each signed a big card to accompany the boxes. Our kids signed cards headed for India and Pakistan. It was a great opportunity.