Western North Carolina churches continue Operation Christmas Child tradition

Churches across western North Carolina, including Asheville, Spruce Pine, Lake Lure, and other hard-hit areas from Hurricane Helene, are working to reach a regional goal of more than 139,000 shoebox gifts for all of western North Carolina as part of Operation Christmas Child through Samaritan’s Purse.

Spruce Pine First Baptist Church in Mitchell County is one of those churches, continuing a twenty-three-year-old Christmas tradition for children around the world. It has also been a source of comfort for those in the area affected by Hurricane Helene for the past two months.

After Helene hit, thanks to a generator, it was the only building in town with electricity. Since then, it has served as a distribution center for clothes, food, and generators and even as a shelter for those who lost their homes.

The church has been a drop-off location for Samaritan’s Purse Operation Christmas Child ministry, and despite this year’s disaster, the congregation committed to a goal of sending 1,000 shoebox gifts to children all around the world. These gifts will contribute towards the regional goal of over 139,000 shoebox gifts for all of western North Carolina—a goal they’ve remained committed to even after Helene devasted these communities.

Pastor Rocky Branch, who has been pastor at First Baptist Church for the past decade, told Carolina Journal in a phone interview that he overheard a woman from the church who oversees the project telling a Samaritan’s Purse representative that they weren’t sure they would participate this year with everything going on due to the storm. The pastor disagreed.

“I said no, absolutely not,” he said. “We’ve got to have the shoeboxes. We will make it work somehow because when you’re in a difficult situation, giving is the greatest thing you can do.”

The church regrouped and made room in the building for both the Helene supplies and the donated shoeboxes. Pastor Branch said the church has served as a drop-off center since the ministry started in Boone, and they just had to continue the Christmas tradition.  

Two local women have made their donations an annual friendly competition, each bringing more than 200 shoeboxes so far this year.

The church expects to receive 4,000 shoeboxes in total. They have also helped out by supplying boxes to other churches that lost theirs due to the storm’s flooding.

The boxes can contain dolls, stuffed animals, soccer balls, brushes, combs, toothbrushes, pens, pencils, clothing, stickers, and puzzles.

The boxes are prayed over several times, first when they start packing them and then during a special prayer service. About 100-200 boxes are placed on the altar. Then, a man from the congregation takes a box for a boy, and a woman takes one for a girl, back to their seats, holds them through the service, and prays over them. Then, they are prayed over again as they are being loaded onto a truck headed for Samaritan’s Purse headquarters in Boone.

“It’s just a fantastic way of reaching out, and what my message to our folks is that when you’re in a nice spot, so to speak, as you give, it releases you, and it helps you to be able to understand better about what’s going on, so it’s a good ministry,” Pastor Branch said. “In Jerusalem, the Dead Sea is dead because it doesn’t have an outlet to it, it’s just dead. It doesn’t give anything, it just sits there, so you can become stale if you do that.”

Operation Christmas Child runs through Nov. 25, but Pastor Branch said there’s still time to contribute because they make frequent trips to Samaritan’s Purse headquarters in Boone, North Carolina.

“100%,” he told CJ. “We’ve made a couple of special runs just with 50 or 75 or 100 boxes or 25 boxes, whatever. We’re going to make sure they get up there.”

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