Operation Christmas Child

A shoe box filled with little toys and necessities may not seem like an ideal Christmas gift to a lot of American children, but it can mean a world of difference to needy kids around the globe. This is the lesson that is being learned by a lot of American kids, including many from this area, who are participating in a special project during which these shoe boxes are being filled and sent to children in scores of countries. They are participating in Operation Christmas Child, the world’s largest, international children’s Christmas project.

Christmas is arriving early in Nicholasville as Mount Pleasant Baptist Church prepares to serve as a collection point for Operation Christmas Child. The event runs Nov. 15-22. Through Operation Christmas Child, the world’s largest Christ-mas project, Nicholasville residents are helping send shoe-box gifts this year to more than 8 million children in 100 countries suffering from natural disaster, war, terrorism, disease, famine and poverty.   From Nicholasville, the shoe-box gifts will be sorted and sent using whatever means necessary — sea containers, trucks, trains, airplanes, boats, camels, even dog sleds — to reach suffering children around the world.

This past week has been a bittersweet time for Ramona Kendrick of Junction City. It has been bitter because she has been involved as a volunteer with a project, Operation Christmas Child, that was a favorite of her late husband, Lawrence Kendrick, who died last July after being injured in a car accident during a mission trip in Russia. It has been sweet for her because her own work on the project this year has kept his memory and spirit alive. "It's been especially tough, because it's the holidays and because this was one of his main church projects," Kendrick said Thursday afternoon while answering the phone in the office at her and her husband's longtime church home, Junction City First Baptist.

JUNCTION CITY - It literally was Christmas in July for Kaitlyn Jackson this past summer. What the Boyle Middle School sixth-grader experienced also was proof that good things do come in small packages. The small package, in this case, was an envelope, and inside of it was a letter and a picture from Tina Horea of Ambilobe, Madagascar. In the letter, Tina, an 8-year-old primary school student in that island nation off of the coast of Africa, thanks Kaitlyn for Christmas gifts Kaitlyn sent to her in late 2006.

JUNCTION CITY - Today Junction City First Baptist Church resembled the North Pole, and the many volunteers looked like elves loading up Santa Claus's sleigh. But Santa, in this case, was a semi-tractor trailer driver in the cab of his big rig, and he was snapping his whip over 18 huge tires whirring furiously to carry tons of special gifts to thousands of needy children, ages 2 to 14 years, around the globe. This scene came from the last day of "National Collection Week" for Operation Christmas Child, a project of Samaritan's Purse, an international relief organization headed by the Rev. Franklin Graham.

Area residents are preparing to bring joy to a hurting world this Christmas by packing and collecting shoe box gifts for hurting children around the world through Operation Christmas Child. Danville Church of God, 516 S. Fourth St., will be open to receive gift-filled shoe boxes during the project's National Collection Week, Nov. 14-21. Local hours of operation will be 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, except 1-5 p.m. Sunday. This is Danville's eighth year as a collection center for Operation Christmas Child, a project that encourages children, families, churches and groups to fill empty shoe boxes with toys, school supplies, hygiene items, photos and personal letters, then hand-delivers them to children worldwide who are suffering from poverty, war, disease, natural disaster and terrorism.

Area residents will help bring joy to a hurting world this Christmas by simply packing and collecting shoe box gifts for hurting children through Operation Christmas Child. Junction City First Baptist Church, 3860 US Hwy. 127 S., will receive gift-filled shoe boxes from the community during Operation Christmas Child's National Collection Week, Nov. 13-20. The church will be open 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Nov. 13-15, 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Nov. 16-18, and noon-8 p.m. Nov. 19 and 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Nov. 20. Operation Christmas Child is a ministry of Samaritan's Purse, the international Christian relief organization headed by Franklin Graham.

Local volunteers are collecting simple shoe box gifts personally packed by children, families, and individuals here in Southern Kentucky. From Southern Kentucky, the shoe box gifts will be sorted and sent using whatever means necessary - sea containers, trucks, buses, trains, airplanes, helicopters, boats, camels, even dog sleds - to reach suffering children around the world. "Operation Christmas Child gives churches, communities and counties the opportunity to be global messengers of the love of Jesus Christ by investing in the lives of children throughout the world," said Bryan Phelps, relay center coordinator.

Being “shoebox crazy” is something Danville's Kathy Kendrick and Liberty's Nicki Johnson have become used to. As part of the collection team for the Danville area, they were two of many volunteers who packed and collected about 23,076 shoeboxes in 2012 for the Samaritan's Purse Operation Christmas Child organization, which sends boxes around the world to children who might have never received a gift. However, in the coming weeks, the two women will do something they never anticipated.

Basketball league set to begin in January The Wilderness Trace Family YMCA will start a Teen Basketball League Jan. 5. Registration deadline is Saturday. There also will be a mandatory clinic at the YMCA for team placement at 10 a.m. Saturday. Division I is 12- to 15-year-olds; Division II is 16- to 18-year-olds. Program fee is $40 and the YMCA membership is $20. Practices will be at the YMCA and games will be at Harrodsburg Intermediate School. For more information, call the YMCA at (859)

Junction City First Baptist Church, 3860 U.S. 127 South, will host an Operation Christmas Child kickoff event for the Danville area at 7 p.m. today. The guest speaker will be Timur Nesbitt, who has experienced the benefits of Operation Christmas Child firsthand. After being abandoned at birth, Nesbitt grew up as  an orphan in central Asia. At age 13, he received an Operation Christmas Child shoe box - the first gift he had ever received. Inside the box was a yo-yo, candy, school supplies, a letter and photo from a boy in Texas who packed the box. “The shoe box reminded me of Jesus' love for me, that he forgave me of my sins and that I should forgive my parents for what they did to me,” Nesbitt said.

Mount Lebanon UMC to present live nativity Mount Lebanon United Methodist Church will present a live nativity Dec. 10 from 6-9 p.m. The public may come and go as they wish during the event. Start your journey at the church with carols and Christmas specials before heading downstairs for some refreshments. Then enjoy a short, 300-yard walk past shepherds in the field to the stable. Sit back, imagine yourself in Bethlehem, and ponder the nativity while listening to the animals (children can pet some)

Thanks to the generous efforts of Boyle County residents, many hurting children worldwide will have the opportunity to experience the joy of Christmas. Boyle County residents joined Operation Christmas Child, the world's largest Christmas project of its kind, to pack 4,911 shoe boxes with toys, school supplies and necessity items. These gift-filled shoe boxes joined the shoeboxes collected by the Danville Area Collection Center, which serves a nine-county area. A total of 18,755 shoeboxes were collected from the nine-county area and are now making their way, using whatever means necessary - sea containers, helicopters, elephants, camels - into the hands of needy children in 100 receiving countries.      On behalf of our community, I would like to thank the volunteers at local collection sites and everyone who packed an Operation Christmas Child shoebox gift.

Revival at Hill Street Pentecostal Hill Street Pentecostal Church of God will host a weekend revival today and Sunday at 7:30 p.m. Jake Paugh will be the speaker. Presbyterian Women host bazaar There will be a Fall Harvest Bazaar at First Presbyterian Church, 130 Windridge Drive, today from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Lunch will be served from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and includes vegetable beef soup, chicken salad croissants, fruit, dessert and drink for $7. All proceeds benefit the mission projects of the Presbyterian Women.

For many children around the world, Christmas is not the highly anticipated, gift-opening occasion it is for most children in the United States. In some parts of the world, for many children, Christmas has no meaning at all. For them, it's just another day. That knowledge spurred First Baptist Church on Highland Street to do something to try and make Christmas a little more special for some of those children by joining Samaritan's Purse's Operation Christmas Child campaign. Participants in the program gather small items such as school supplies, small toys, personal hygiene items, T-shirts and socks, which are put into shoe boxes designated for specific ages of girls and boys, and sent all over the world.

Rev. Winfred C. Smith honored for 50 years of service to church Pleasant Valley Baptist Church, Clintonville, honored the Rev. Winfred C. Smith Sunday, Oct. 30, for his more than 50 years of service to the church and the Consolidated Baptist District Association. Smith recently retired as full-time pastor at the church, but plans to continue working in the ministry, preaching and praying at churches and events in the community. Winchester Mayor Ed Burtner and Consolidated Baptist District Association Moderator the Rev. Dr. Bishop E. Carter III attended service at Pleasant Valley to honor Smith.

Trick-or-treat, Halloween Main-IA set for Monday Halloween Main-IA will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Monday in downtown Winchester. Local businesses will hand out candy to trick-or-treaters and all children are invited. Trick-or-treating throughout Winchester and Clark County also will be from 6 to 8 p.m. I-64 lane closed for pavement work A portion of the left lane on Interstate 64 at the 98 mile marker will remain closed until about 7 p.m. today, according to a Kentucky Transportation Cabinet press release.