Mission helps spread love

By LINDA M. LINONISand AMANDA GARRETT
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITERS
Describing herself as "mission minded," Stephanie Haught took on the challenge of coordinating a relay center at Poland Presbyterian Church for Operation Christmas Child.
The resulting hustle and bustle there, at a site in Howland and many other places, is part of the charity's annual collection week. Hundreds of volunteers from the Mahoning Valley and surrounding areas show their Christmas spirit by making shoe-box gifts for needy children in more than 90 countries.
The project is sponsored by Samaritan's Purse, a nondenominational evangelical Christian organization. Operation Christmas Child has hand-delivered shoe-box gifts to more than 38 million in need, in about 120 countries, since 1993.
The wrapped shoe boxes, filled with toys, school supplies and hygiene items are being delivered to the relay center by churches, schools, service and community organizations, families and individuals.
As the shoe boxes come in, Haught and other relay center coordinators and volunteers pack the shoe boxes in shipping boxes.
From the relay centers, the shipping boxes go to the Warren Collection Center in Howland, where Laura York is Trumbull County Operation Christmas Child Warren Collection coordinator. She coordinates the collection in Mahoning, Trumbull, Ashtabula, Geauga and Lake counties.
Kids helping kids
"It's kids helping kids in some instances, and that's a great thing," York said. "It's a way to spread some love and happiness and show your care and concern as a Christian," said York, a member of House of Prayer and Praise in Bazetta.
This year, the local chapter of Operation Christmas Child expects to ship out some 13,000 shoe boxes. They are sent to Operation Christmas Child's national headquarters in North Carolina.
Wednesday morning, volunteers were sorting and packing brightly wrapped shoe boxes at 5000 E. Market Street, Suite 19. This year, York said she expects to fill up two 53-foot tractor-trailers with boxes from the area.
Two of the volunteers will be traveling to El Salvador on Dec. 9 through Dec. 20 to pass them out. Both Jarod Palm, 17, of Warren, and Joy Goodrich, 17, of Liberty, said they are excited about their upcoming trip.
"I've been to Jamaica, Mexico and the Cayman Islands, but this is the first missionary trip I've been on," Goodrich said. "I'm looking forward to seeing the kids close-up and the looks on their faces when they receive the shoe boxes."
Palm and Goodrich will also help out at orphanages and schools, and teach classes at a Vacation Bible School.
Another local teen, Jason Neiswanger, 17, of Beloit, will be part of the 100 students from the U.S. and Canada who will pass out boxes in both urban and rural areas.
"Operation Christmas Child goes where even missionaries don't go," York said. "They deliver boxes by helicopter and truck -- any way they can get it to the children. They even deliver by dog sled in some of the colder areas."
Haught noted that she has seen the reactions of children after they've watched a video of children worldwide receiving the shoe-box gifts. "Even if they themselves don't have a lot of material things, they realize they have more than these children," Haught said.
Ken Fox, a deacon at Poland Presbyterian, helped out Tuesday at the relay center. When Marilyn Morgan and Nancy Murray of First United Methodist Church in Hubbard arrived with their church's donation, Fox and the two women wheeled out borrowed grocery carts to collect the shoe boxes. Haught then handled the paperwork to catalog the number of shoe boxes and the donor. The shipping boxes each contain 16 to 20 shoe boxes.
"Mission work is probably one of the top projects a church can do to help people around the world," Fox said.
"You know it's going to help someone who has very little," Murray said.
Anyone wanting a full list of drop-off locations should visit Trumbull County Operation Christmas Child Web site http://www.TrumbullOCC.org.