FBC-Floydada is a local drop off location for the Operation Christmas Child shoebox program (Photo courtesy of Ludustia Prisk)
FLOYDADA, TX – In 1993, Samaritan’s Purse President Franklin Graham received a call from a man in England asking if he’d be willing to fill shoeboxes with gifts for children in war-torn Bosnia. Franklin asked a pastor in Charlotte to help. Within weeks, the church had 11,000 shoeboxes lining their hallways, and Samaritan’s Purse sent 28,000 shoebox gifts to children in the Balkans that Christmas.
For the past 17 years, volunteers at First Baptist Church in Floydada have packed Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes to assist in sending gifts and the message of salvation worldwide.
So far this year, according to church spokesperson Ludustia Prisk, they have collected around 1,050 shoeboxes from Floydada, Lockney, Paducah, Matador, Flomot, Silverton, Crosbyton, Turkey, and Quitaque, which is “a little shy from last year” with a few days left to go.
FBC-Floydada collects the boxes locally, then delivers them to First Baptist Church in Lubbock, where they are loaded into semi-trailers. From there, the boxes move to a distribution center in Dallas for review (to ensure the boxes don’t include items that cannot be shipped). After that, they are part of the more than 10 million boxes delivered globally to children.
The final day of collection in Floyd County is Sunday. If you are interested in helping, contact Prisk at (806) 983-3755.
