Local church becomes collection center for Operation Christmas
2001 was a big year for Operation Christmas Child’s Love in a Shoebox, a national program that delivers Christmas packages to children in desperate situations around the world. In this local area, a total of 184 churches, schools, individuals and organizations participated. The 6,070 boxes collected at Great Bethel Baptist Church in Uniontown were sent to Morgantown, W.Va., bringing their total to 15,989 boxes. West Virginia’s total was 67,604. Nationally, 5.4 million were collected.
Because of the great response in our area, Great Bethel Baptist Church has been upgraded to a collection center. Parks Moving and Storage in Uniontown has partnered with Great Bethel and will be a collection site where all relay sites under Great Bethel will deliver their packed cartons.
A Samaritan’s Purse truck will be on location at Park’s in November to take the shoeboxes down to the processing center in Charlotte, N.C. Parks Moving and Storage helped with the project last year by donating the use of two trucks and drivers to deliver the boxes to Morgantown.
Great Bethel will remain a relay site (drop off) for the boxes for the Uniontown area plus relay sites are needed in or around the following areas: Brownsville, Rockwood, Somerset and Waynesburg.
A relay site is now set up in Connellsville at World Christian Outreach Ministries, located at 503 West Georgia Avenue. Ruth Smith will be the relay site coordinator.
A drop off site has also been established in Everson for the northern part of Fayette County and possibly into Westmoreland County. This is the Everson Evangelical Church, located at 414 Painter St. Contact is the Rev. Neil Stevens.
There will also be a drop off site in Markleysburg at New Life Covenant Church, located along Route 40 beside A.J. McMullen School.
Operation Christmas Child is also looking for a local media coordinator. This person would talk to radio and television stations and newspapers to promote the project.
For more information about becoming a relay site, media coordinator or information, contact Susan Jennings at 724-437-0815 or Patty Franks at 724-437-7572.