Gerry Poole volunteers as the Regional Coordinator for Operation Christmas Child for Chilliwack, Abbotsford, Mission and Maple Ridge. He has a great team of volunteers that help with collecting shoe boxes filled with gifts for children in many countries around the world – 11 countries are involved in collecting these shoe boxes which are distributed in more than 100 countries.
In February 2008 Gerry had the privilege of participating in the distribution of Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes in Uruguay. This had a huge impact on his life. He realized that it’s not about the contents of the boxes, but about what God does in people’s lives, because of the boxes. The distribution of the boxes results in many children and adults responding to hearing about God’s love, which is followed up by the local pastors and churches, who also help with the distribution. The children are very excited to see what’s in the boxes, but many of them are also very interested in knowing a bit about the people who cared enough to give the boxes. “Because you gave, it changed my life”
The Operation Christmas Child Kickoff for this year is at Northview Community Church on Friday, September 26th, in Centre Court.
Boxes can be picked up at Northview starting the October 4th / 5th weekend, until October 24th / 25th.
Filled boxes should be returned to Northview by November 23rd. Collection of all boxes from all Abbotsford churches is at Northview from November 24th-29th, at the Centre Court entrance, at the back of the church.
Collection of boxes from the rest of the region (Chilliwack, Mission and Maple Ridge) is from December 1st–6th.