Christmas 2010 Shoe box appeal

A great effort was made in just a few weeks by children from Sunday School, from Kidz Klub and Oasis Youth (OY) to prepare 30 shoe boxes full of Christmas gifts for children in eastern Europe. The Samaritan's Purse organisation co-ordinates this amazing project every year and invites churches and schools and other community groups to get involved.

We decided to support the project this year although we were a bit late. This meant a big effort to get everything done in time. Children helped in bringing in empty shoe boxes for preparation. Our OY group decorated each box with Christmas wrapping paper and many brought in small gifts as well.

Isobel then had the task of going through every box to make sure it contained gifts that were suitable and that would be enjoyed by chldren of different age groups. Finally, these were taken to the regional collection centre near Horsham. It was great to see a volunteer team involved in working really hard to process all the boxes that had been donated. These were checked individually and added to where needed to ensure that each box was of a good quality. It was really rewarding to know that there are many people throughout the UK working on this project so that children from some of the poorest countries in eastern Europe, will have a Christmas gift this year. Well done to all who helped at Oasis and well done to Samaritan's Purse.

For all our other pictures about this project, please look on the web site under PHOTOS.