If you are somebody who has never been to an Operation Christmas Child plant or you've never been involved with Operation Christmas Child, I encourage you to do so! This past saturday I went to the OCC plant in Charlotte, North Carolina with a group of people from the church that I attend. When we got there a woman was standing infront of the door waiting to hug each and every person who comes into the building. she was so sweet. Then we checked in and wrote our name tags and we were instructed to go to a room to the left of the building. In the room we watched a movie maybe 2 or 3 minutes long that showed a few children who received shoe boxes and their reactions when they got them. It was one of the sadest movies i've ever seen. It said the shoe boxes that children recieve may be the only gifts that they get for Christmas. We learned that there are 6 OCC plants in the United States. Last year alone, 1.8 million boxes were sent from the Charlotte plant to countries all around the world. Their goal this year is more than 2 million boxes. The plant has hundreds of thousands of boxes stacked up that are ready to be sorted & packed into cardboard boxes to be shipped. Each box receives atleast one bag of candy and boxes that aren't full have extra "fillers" added to them, so each child receives a full box! If volunteering at OCC there are many different things to be done. Some boxes that don't come with candy need candy added to them so people are needed to sort candy and put a few pieces into each sandwich bag. The candy is then distributed to boxes. Some people pack shoe boxes into big card-board boxes to be shipped. some people sort through the shoe boxes to see if anything inside cannot be shipped. When the sorting is done, the box is taped once around the middle & put onto a belt that carries the box to the end of the line. And some people sort through boxes to check for any donations that were sent. When the boxes are distributed to children, each child gets a book (in their own language) that tells them the story of Jesus. Many children recieve addresses and names of families that sent the box so sometimes the children write to the families. Some children have even written about how they've accepted Jesus Christ as their personal savior! On many occasions, i was on the verge of crying. I just keep thinking about what a blessing these boxes are to MANY MANY MANY different children around the world. When we left we got free OPERATION CHRISTMAS CHILD 2007 t-shirts =]. I WILL Deffinately be going back next year! This ministry is truly AMAZING!