Gift boxes being readied for millions of children

One Love Ministries is poised to kick off its annual Operation Christmas Child project, through shoe boxes filled with gifts and sent to children around the globe.

Serving as a guest speaker at an event set for 6:30 p.m. Thursday at its church site at 670 Auahi St., Suite A-5, will be Devon Rachae, the project’s national coordinator for Grenada. Rachae received one of the shoe boxes when he was 12 years old and living in a rural village in Grenada. According to a news release, the gift helped shape the future for Rachae, who at age 22 in 2008 was elected as the country’s youngest-ever senator.

The event is open to the public. The Christmas project’s local collection week is slated to start Nov. 16. Shoe boxes will be filled with school supplies, hygiene items and toys. One Love Ministries is an international partner in Operation Christmas Child, a project of Samaritan’s Purse, an international Christian relief and evangelism organization.

Last year the Oahu community alone collected thousands of shoe-box gifts last year for Nepal, with the neighbor islands sending more than 42,000 boxes, the release said. Oahu volunteers are already working to collect more than 30,000 additional gifts this year to be sent to what the operation hopes will be 11 million children in more than 150 countries.

Since 1993, Operation Christmas Child has delivered gift-filled shoe boxes to more than 124 million children in more than 150 countries and territories.

For additional information, call Dorothy Akui, a volunteer coordinator on Oahu, at 744-7062.