It’s Operation Christmas Child Collection Week At First Baptist Bratt

November 17, 2020

Volunteers are busy this week at the First Baptist Church of Bratt during “National Collection Week” for Operation Christmas Child. Since 1993, the simple, gift-filled shoe boxes will bring Christmas joy and evangelistic materials to children in over 150 countries across the world.

National Collection Week for OCC continues through November 23. The First Baptist  Church of Bratt is the official drop-off location/OCC Relay Center for the north end of Escambia County, FL.

Pastor Tim Hawsey, Relay Center coordinator, said the shoe boxes are distributed by trained local pastors and volunteers around the world…right where the children live. The children that receive the box are invited to participate in a twelve step bible study called The Greatest Journey translated into their native language and taught by local people the children know.

The First baptist Church of Bratt is located at 4570 West Highway 4, near the Travis M. Nelson Park. Collection hours will be:

Tuesday, November 17: 9 a.m. until noon
Wednesday, November 18: 9 a.m. until noon, 5 p.m. until 9 p.m.
Thursday, November 19: 3 p.m. until 6 p.m.
Friday, November 20: 9 a.m. until noon
Saturday, November 21: 9 a.m. until noon
Sunday, November 22: 4 p.m. until 4:30 p.m., 5 p.m. until 7 p.m.
Monday, November 23: 8 a.m. until 10 a.m.

“This is about being a blessing and bringing God’s love and hope to children in poverty around the world that would not receive it otherwise. We have gone through the intense process of been approved as a church to be a Relay Center to collect the boxes from individuals, families, and churches of our area, document and pack them into special cartons and take them to the next level for Samaritan’s Purse,” Hawsey said.

Operation Christmas Child boxes should be packed in a specific manner. For more information, call Hawsey at the First Baptist Church of Bratt at (850) 327-6529, visit www.samaritanspurse.org/occ, or call (800) 353-5949. Resources are available for churches that wish to participate.

“If you are not able to pack a box but would like to make a contribution toward a box let me know,” Hawsey said.

Samaritan’s Purse is a nondenominational non-profit organization that has mission’s opportunities all over the world.

Comments

One Response to “It’s Operation Christmas Child Collection Week At First Baptist Bratt”

  1. Theresa Crabtree on November 17th, 2020 2:44 pm

    I had always enjoyed doing Operation Christmas Child until a couple of years ago. The church had always paid the freight charges for the shoe boxes. the past two years we voted as a church not to do the shoe boxes. I have been saving toys and books hoping that we would do them again, but not this year either, so sad I miss doing them.