Operation Christmas Child: Take One!

Tonight was our first go-round with Operation Christmas Child, and we ended up with 100 stuffed and sealed boxes! We have 30 more boxes to finish with the Sunday School kids next week, but tonight was the older kids' turn - our confirmation, senior high, and Connect (5th and 6th graders) kids.

We've been collecting donations from the congregation for a few weeks. As a fun advertisement, our pastor suggested we decorate a refrigerator box as a HUGE shoebox to collect the donations in. And, I do mean HUGE!

Yes, those are kids in there!

It took about half an hour to organize all those donations and set up the gym in an assembly line...

And then, the kids showed up!
We started in the sanctuary for some worship songs and a messy game! (This week, they had to dig a gummy worm out of a plate of whipped cream using just their mouths.. Yuck!)


We had to split up the three age groups so one group packed their boxes at a time. My 5th and 6th graders LOVED choosing the items for their kids! They put a lot of time and thought into which toys were appropriate for a child in their age range. We had some pretty cool stuff, too!

Then it was back to our room to fill out our notes! They wanted to make sure their boxes' recipients knew all about them.

I made sure we had some fun Christmas-themed activities for our early finishers - They loved these free Christmas Mad Libs and this Memory game!

Phew! I'm so glad we made it through - 100 boxes!!! Only 30 more to go!