Members of Asbury United Methodist Church helped send shoeboxes filled with gifts to children around the world
Saving shoeboxes for storage, school projects or time capsules is a common practice in many households. Each year, thousands of those shoeboxes find a greater purpose in becoming vessels for Operation Christmas Child, an annual project that Cinnaminson’s Asbury United Methodist Church participates in each holiday season.
Samaritan’s Purse, an international relief organization that distributes packages in partnership with Operation Christmas Child, provides local partners around the world with shoeboxes filled with small toys, hygiene items and school supplies as a means of reaching out to children in their communities. They ship these boxes abroad to children affected by war, poverty, natural disaster or disease, as well as to children living on Native American reservations in the U.S. But all those boxes can’t find their way to those children without the help of volunteers.
Shirley Phares and Janice DeNofa, longtime members of Asbury United, are proud to call themselves two of those volunteers. Across the 20-odd Christmas seasons they assisted in the packing, processing and mailing of the shoeboxes, Phares and DeNofa have lost track of numbers, though Asbury United’s pastor, the Rev. John Doll, estimates each of the women has made around 500 packages alone.
Phares can even remember back to the project’s inception in the early 1990s, when volunteers would have to mail each shoebox individually to a distribution center in North Carolina.
“There were a lot of women involved, and they rented a Uhaul to take all the boxes at once so we wouldn’t have to mail them,” she recalled. “It’s very near and dear to my heart because when I read about these children who have never received a Christmas present, I can’t help but shed a few tears. It’s a blessing and a joy for me to do this.”
Randy and Mary Soderholm, a husband and wife who have been members of Asbury United since 2005, traveled two hours to Columbia, Md., on Dec. 4 to a processing center, where they spent five hours helping put together what would eventually amount to roughly 50,000 packages — in just one day — to send.
Randy and Mary were responsible for packages going to Honduras and Columbia. Volunteers are tasked with taking the $9 donations for shipping costs out of the box, along with any candy or liquids, which are not allowed through customs. The boxes, often overflowing with goodies, are then taped, addressed and shipped.
Mary said she was touched by one story in which a boy received a pair of pink flip flops, which his mother desperately needed. He dropped the box and ran all the way home to give his mother the shoes, forgetting his toys.
“It was the perfect gift to him because he wanted to give something to his mother,” Mary said. “You never know how many family members these boxes are going to help — it could be a sibling or a mother or a grandparent.”
Vandella Poe, another Asbury United volunteer who traveled for the first time this year to the processing center with a separate group on Dec. 5, said while processing the boxes, she was struck by how blessed she is to have so much.
“My experience volunteering with Operation Christmas Child was one filled with joy, excitement and elation. This was my first time volunteering for OCC, and I was amazed by how organized the entire operation was,” Poe said. “I was moved to tears knowing that somewhere around the world, many children will be receiving a special gift of love, hope and happiness all contained in a small shoebox, a present to open on Christmas day and enjoy.”
For more information about Samaritan’s Purse or to find out how you can get involved, visit samaritanspurse.org or contact Asbury United Methodist Church at [email protected].
