Hilo Missionary Church on Komohana Street in Hilo was recently recognized by Samaritan’s Purse/Operation Christmas Child for their 15 years of committed partnership.
Hilo Missionary Church on Komohana Street in Hilo was recently recognized by Samaritan’s Purse/Operation Christmas Child for their 15 years of committed partnership.
The church serves as the main collection center during National Collection Week each year by providing space for the sea container and facility use for processing shoe box gifts collected in East Hawaii. Since the beginning of their partnership approximately 71,000 shoe boxes have been processed and shipped from this collection site.
The mission of Operation Christmas Child is to provide God’s love in a tangible way to children in need around the world. In 1993 Samaritan’s Purse began collecting shoe boxes filled with gifts in response to a request for gifts for children in war-torn Bosnia. Since 1993, more than 178 million children in over 160 countries and territories have received a shoe box gift.
This year 5,827 shoe boxes were collected in East Hawaii and processed through the collection center that included drop offs at Puna Covenant Church, Hamakua First Assembly, Big Island Toyota and De Luz Chevrolet. Over 36,000 shoe boxes were collected in the state of Hawaii for 2020.
For more information go to samaritanspurse.org/occ, or call 808-987-7373.
