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Rising Fawn Baptist Church raises more than 1,100 Operation Christmas Child boxes
Posted on Wednesday, November 18, 2009
After six weeks of raising money and collecting donated items, Rising Fawn Baptist Church in Rising Fawn, Ga., held a special dedication ceremony on Nov. 11, 2009, to bless and send on their way 1,168 boxes for Operation Christmas Child.
This is the third year Rising Fawn Baptist Church has participated in Operation Christmas Child. The first year, they gathered 38 boxes. Last year, the number grew to more than 500, and this year they shattered that number.
“We started out telling everybody what we’re doing as Operation Christmas Child got started,” explained church member and collection organizer Marilyn Wallin, with a charismatic grin. “We got anyone who wanted to donate money to donate money, and anyone who didn’t want to, to donate money anyway.”
“We have a member here whose brother owns a shop and we went with our money and just wiped him out,” said Pat Martin, who also helps organize the collection for the church. “He really took care of us.”
The results of their efforts collected $1,100 from church members to be used to purchase contents for the Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes that covered most of the church’s stage and pulpit. Stacked in giant pyramids to look like Christmas trees, they towered over the sanctuary and made a powerful image of giving.
Christian McDonald, activities director at Life Care Center of East Ridge, Tenn., who worked with Rising Fawn to supply boxes and guidance, said, “I got a call from Rising Fawn telling me they were out of shoe boxes again. I asked how many they needed, and when she told me, I swallowed real big and told her I hoped I had that many!”
During the dedication ceremony, Rising Fawn’s Pastor Tommy Crider shared a story from his own experience packing the shoe boxes. “I recall one night of being here putting a few of these boxes together. They told me to count out so many things, and the more I did that, the more I got to thinking about these kids. I just started reaching in and getting handfuls and shoving them in there. So some of these boxes are a little heavier than others, and those are the ones I put together.”
The boxes collected for Operation Christmas Child will be distributed to children in war-torn and poverty-stricken countries by Samaritan’s Purse, the Christian relief organization headed by Franklin Graham, son of the Rev. Billy Graham.
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