St. Mary's New Site

See below for more information!

Operation Christmas Child is the world’s largest children’s Christmas appeal, made possible through the support of thousands of children and adults in the UK. Last year over 1.2 million shoeboxes were sent to children in Africa, Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Operation Christmas Child takes the gift-filled shoebox - packed, wrapped and taken to one of local drop off points - and then hand delivers it to a child, asking nothing from them in return.

Shoeboxes are given to children in need, with no regard to their background or beliefs. The charity works with local partners on the ground to ensure that the gift-filled shoeboxes are delivered with respect to the local culture. Where culturally appropriate, our overseas partners will make available a booklet of Bible stories

Every year St. Mary's supports the Operation Christmas Child appeal by helping to arrange the collection of boxes from local schools and other organisations, which are then checked before taking to a Collecting Hub in Nottingham.

This Christmas we collected 218 boxes, of which the majority went to Swaziland and the rest to Eastern Europe.

Collecting our shoe boxes for next Christmas starts in October/ November. Simply collect a leaflet from the back of church or ring me and I will get some to you. For further information please contact Andrea Sands Tel 0115 920 2023 or email thesands@ntlworld.com

In order to reach their destinations, the shoe boxes need to be in church before the last week of November. Please help make a child’s dreams come true next Christmas.

For more information about the work of Samaritan's Purse, please go to their website

A Story from Belarus

“God really had a special purpose for that shoebox!” This shoebox was the smallest and it was plain and grey. It arrived at an orphanage in Belarus and was handed to a small boy on crutches. He pulled out a soft, cuddly grey mouse. Laughing, he hugged the mouse close to his cheek and began to look through the rest of the contents. Everything inside the shoebox was grey and yet the little boy’s smile grew wider and wider. Intrigued, the distributor asked him if he liked his shoebox. With a huge smile the little boy explained, “Grey is my favourite colour and I had dreamed about getting a cuddly grey mouse. I want him to sleep on my pillow at night. I know this grey shoebox was especially made for me!”

Ever wanted to literally see the smiles on the faces of the children who receive your shoeboxes? Well this year, you can - with Shoebox Live!

For the first time in the history of Operation Christmas Child we will be broadcasting a live shoebox distribution! By the wonders of the internet you’ll be able to see into rural Swaziland and watch schoolchildren in a small village called Kaphunga have the experience of a lifetime.

The great thing about this distribution is anyone can watch. All you need to do is log on to http://www.ustream.tv/channel/occ at 10.00 am GMT on the Wed 8th of February (This has been brought forward from 1.00 pm). When you log on you’ll be greeted with a room full of excited schoolchildren who have been waiting with great anticipation to open their shoebox.

Page was last altered 27 January 2012