By Lauren Thornton Tobin

This is the first year for First Baptist Church of Hartselle to serve as a Collection Center for Operation Christmas Child Shoeboxes of Hope and they seem to be doing well in terms of meeting their goal.

Just four days into the National Collection Week, Nov. 14 to Nov. 21, First Baptist collected 57 percent of their goal for boxes in four days.

“The Hartselle community collected just more than 1,000 boxes, Cullman collected around 4,000 and Decatur collected 3, 000,” said associate pastor and collection center coordinator, Jeffery Albright. “Ultimately by the time we get done at the end of National Collection Week, we hope our area collects about 14,000 boxes.”

The project goals for the world and the U.S. vary each year and the number is steady increasing, Albright said, explaining that North Alabama’s goal, from the Tennessee state line down to Cullman, alone is 52,000 boxes.

“Our goals for each year change and they increase from year to year as we expect God’s blessing through that. The 2015 goal was 11.2 million boxes for international kids and 8.7 boxes for the United States to be collected and distributed,” he said. “The 2016 goal is 12 million international and 9.5 million for United States. Speaking for our area, we’re on track.”

The shoeboxes are collected from area churches and organizations to send to more than 150 different countries, including the United States, and are packed with different items such as toys, school supplies, hygiene materials, clothes and bottled water.

Once collected from local centers, they’re loaded into an 18-wheeler and send to Atlanta, then forwarded to children in areas of the world where Christianity may not be taught or poverty stricken areas of the U.S.

Once the boxes get to their destinations, pastors and volunteers disperse them while spreading the message of Jesus Christ.

“It’s a huge, huge ministry that relies on countless volunteers. Most people don’t realize the majority of the people who participate are simply volunteers,” Albright said. “Anybody can do it and anybody can contribute to it, and that’s the greatest thing about it.”

The Hartselle center is the only collection center for areas in and around Cullman and Morgan Counties, and though this is the first year for First Baptist to act as that collection center, church members are used to being involved.

“As a church we’ve been doing this for 10 to 12 years, but we have many individuals who’ve been doing it since the beginning,” Albright said, adding that the church was a relay center for the last four years. “We have many in our congregation who have a heart and passion for it and got more and more people on board.”

Eventually church members realized there were so many people packing and sending the shoeboxes, they designated a Sunday solely for passing out and collecting boxes.

“One of the greatest things is that each shoebox gifts is, as one of the ladies at church describes it, the hands and feet of Christ going out to people,’” Albright said, adding that children receive a copy of a book inside their boxes that teaches them about having a relationship with Christ.

Hazel Hacker, a church member, said it began when Linda Jones’ Sunday School class began doing it years ago and word got around.

“We started with just regular shoeboxes and wrapped them with Christmas wrapping paper,” she said. “Then we hear about people buying plastic boxes so the kids had a place to keep their stuff, those cardboard boxes tear up, so we started buying plastic boxes.”

Hacker said the church bought 250 plastic boxes for people to come pick up and fill, but she filled 13 boxes.

“I was determined I wanted to do one a month,” she said.

In the boxes Hacker packs, she puts a flashlight with extra batteries, soap, toothbrush and toothpaste, toys and school supplies in them.

“They say now to get a soap holder, you can get them for 50 cents, because when the children open the soap, they don’t have anywhere to put it,” she said.

Hacker said items not allowed are liquids and chocolate candy because of the tendency for them to spill or melt.

“It’s a wonderful ministry and satisfying to me,” she said. “I may not can go to Africa but I can send a box. One little gift could make a tremendous difference in their lives, just knowing someone loves them and cares about them.”

The idea is sponsored by Samaritan’s Purse, an evangelical Christian humanitarian outreach program, but it’s up to individual churches around the nation to volunteering and work together for the different projects.