Vicki Pepper, area coordinator of the South Arkansas Operation Christmas Child team and children’s minister at Immanuel Baptist Church in El Dorado, will join 80 other volunteers on a special Samaritan’s Purse team traveling to Colombia this spring to share God’s love with thousands of children through Operation Christmas Child shoebox gifts.
Pepper serves the South Arkansas Area team year-round by leading efforts to pack and collect shoeboxes filled with toys, school supplies and hygiene items for children in need overseas. She has spent years collecting gifts and leading the local OCC team to processing centers in Atlanta, Ga., and Dallas and to nationwide OCC meets. Pepper collects shoeboxes throughout the 13 counties in Arkansas and one Louisiana Parish that make up the South Arkansas Area team.
Now, she will be the one placing these shoeboxes filled with gifts into the children’s hands.
The team will be traveling April 30 to May 4 and will hand out shoeboxes to children in schools and churches in and around Medellin, Colombia.
“Through this trip, I hope I can make our area aware of how a simple shoebox gift can make a huge impact on a child’s life,” Pepper said. “I hope I can bring back the excitement and inspire others to make small donations within the South Arkansas area that will change the life of a child.”
Since 1993, Operation Christmas Child, a project of Samaritan’s Purse, has delivered shoebox gifts to more than 124 million children in over 100 countries.
According to “The World Factbook,” more than one third of the population in Colombia lives below the poverty line and 25 percent of the population is under the age of 14. “Through the power of a simple gift and the message of eternal hope through Jesus Christ, children learn they are loved and not forgotten. For many of these children, the shoebox will be the first gift they have ever received,” Pepper said.
The first year shoeboxes were collected in the U.S. for OCC in 1993. Organizers prayed for 1,000 gifts and 28,000 were received and given to children in war-torn Bosnia. A record nine million shoeboxes were collected in 2012 and in 2013, OCC celebrated 100 million shoebox gifts distributed for needy children.
In 1994, the first year gift-filled shoeboxes were collected locally, 12 boxes were filled and were mailed to Baton Rouge, La. Since that time, under Pepper’s leadership, the number of boxes packed and shipped from Immanuel Baptist Church (the local collection center), has grown by leaps and bounds and in 2013 and 2014, over 50,000 shoeboxes were collected each year.
In 2014, shoeboxes collected throughout the United States and several other countries were delivered to children suffering because of war, natural disasters, poverty, famine, disease, neglect and exploitation in 130 countries.
Every year, the local OCC team plans numerous packing parties and events to raise awareness, shoeboxes and gifts.
For information about Operation Christmas Child, call 870-862-4264 or visit samaritanspurse.org/occ.