CENTER TWP — For the destitute children in the developing countries where Samaritan’s Purse sends Operation Christmas Child gift boxes, the seemingly basic items inside represent an unbelievable Christmas miracle.

“Sometimes this is the first time these kids have gotten a Christmas present,” said Rege Judy, Operation Christmas Child team leader at Community Alliance Church on Mercer Road.

The church was one of four in Butler County to serve as an Operation Christmas Child central drop-off location until Sunday, Nov. 19.

The church accepted shoe boxes filled with small items for children aged 2 to 14, or items for volunteers at the church to include in boxes filled there.

Box contents suggested by Operation Christmas Child included hygiene items like toothbrushes, soap, washcloths and hairbrushes, small games and toys, school items, and “wow items,” like a stuffed animal, doll, or deflated soccer ball and air pump.

The boxes are delivered to 170 countries, and 209 million boxes have been distributed worldwide since the Christmas shoe box program was instituted by Samaritan’s Purse in 1993, Judy said.

“Last year, 10.6 million boxes were distributed, and 9.3 million of them were from the United States,” Judy said.

He said most shoe boxes were packed by members of churches, groups or individuals throughout the county and brought to Community Alliance Church, but some people brought loose items for volunteers to add to boxes made at the church.

Michelle Pfeifer, Operation Christmas Child project leader at Community Alliance, said children in Eastern European orphanages often must share a single towel and bar of soap with eight others.

To open a box that contains their very own washcloth or bar of soap is priceless to those children, she said.

Pfeifer said she saw sewing kits and fishing kits in some of the shoe boxes that were donated.

“If they get a fishing kit, they can help feed their family,” she said.

Judy said each shoe box is labeled with the gender and age it is intended for.

The labels provided by Samaritan’s Purse also sport a QR code that can be scanned to donate $10 toward costs of shipping the boxes and training volunteers in the far-flung countries where the boxes will arrive.

He said 15 boxes are placed into a cardboard carton, and the cartons are wheeled to the church’s south parking lot, where they are loaded onto tractor-trailers provided by Old Dominion Freight Company.

Each tractor-trailer holds 350 cartons, Judy said.

Old Dominion then delivers the cartons to processing centers in Boone, N.C., or Baltimore.

Volunteers at the processing centers open the cartons, sort the shoe boxes by age and gender, and reseal the cartons for shipment to children around the globe.

Judy said, in addition to the Christmas gifts in the boxes, the children who receive them are invited to attend a program known as “Greatest Journey,” which is a 12-week program set up like vacation Bible school.

A booklet of the New Testament and a workbook for Greatest Journey are included with each box distributed.

“Each of these boxes, to me, represents a child who is going to hear about a God who loves them,” Judy said, “and when a child hears that, the family hears it, so it’s a multiplication factor.”

Judy said Samaritan’s Purse was started 30 years ago by Franklin Graham, son of the renowned evangelist, Billy Graham.

Samaritan’s Purse began the Operation Christmas Child shoe box program 25 years ago.

“We’ve been doing it here at our church for most of the that time,” Judy said.

He said 80 to 85 church members volunteer at the drop-off center each year.

The four drop-off centers at Butler County churches and the two in Armstrong County provided 11,790 boxes this year for Operation Christmas Child, which is up almost 1,000 boxes from last year’s total of 10,854.

Zion Methodist Community Church in Buffalo Township, Chicora Alliance Church, Advance Community Church in Mars and Friendship Presbyterian Church in Slippery Rock are the other churches in Butler County serving as central drop-off locations.

Melissa Mahan, of Penn Township, has worshipped at Community Alliance Church for more than 30 years.

She has volunteered with its Operation Christmas Child program for the past three years.

“It’s a great ministry to spread God’s love,” Mahan said, “and to see these kids’ faces light up …”

Mahan pointed to the large TV screen nearby that played children's reactions to their boxes on a loop. The children hugged their stuffed animals and shrieked or jumped up and down in delight as they discovered each item inside.

“It’s just precious,” Mahan said.

She is not surprised the program is so successful each year.

“Butler County is a very giving community,” Mahan said. “Anytime we have asked for support for anything for our church, people have just come out.”

Daniel Pfeifer, 18, has been helping out with the shoe box program at Community Alliance since he was 6 years old.

“I feel useful and it’s fun to do,” said Pfeifer, who wore an elf hat as he went about his volunteer work Thursday.

He said he always thinks of the children who will receive the boxes while he completes his tasks.

“It’s always fun to remember every single box is a child whose life is going to be changed for the better,” Pfeifer said.

He hopes all children who receive a box also discover the true meaning of Christmas, Judy said.

“The goal is to show God’s love to them,” he said.