Bridge Church launched another Operation Christmas Child to help kids in need
Members of Medicine Hat’s Bridge Church and the public packed 490 boxes for kids in need — 90 more than its target — as part of Operation Christmas Child on Sunday.
Lead pastor Dave Maneschyn told the News that the church has beaten its target every year its participated in the project, but this one had an especially large increase.
“This is the third year. The first year we had a goal of 200 boxes and we did 208. And then the next year we upped it to 300 and did 311,” said Maneschyn.
The church’s congregants purchased as many items as they could to go into the boxes.
Then each participant purchased the boxes to pack.
“Basically, you just buy the box and then you pack it with all the things that are there, and then we send it off to Samaritan’s Purse in Calgary,” he said.
Samaritan’s Purse is the organization in charge of Operation Christmas Child. They provide a list of items for their partners, like Bridge Church, to collect for the packages.
“We just look at that list and start there,” Maneschyn said, adding that the list is broken down into age groups — two-to-four, five-to-nine and 10-to-14 — as well as gender.
Maneschyn said they could’ve packed more than 490 boxes with all the public support they received.
“People were willing to go ahead and pack more boxes, but we just ran out of the actual materials to go in them,” he said.
“Only half the people there were (from) our church. The other half (were) just people from throughout the community ... deciding to come out and make a difference in the life of a kid who wouldn’t normally get Christmas.”