Editor's note: "Spotlight on Sharing" is an ongoing series published in The Sentinel on the third Tuesday of each month. Featured are stories that focus on people and organizations who give back to the Juniata Valley in a meaningful way. Whether through the donation of time, resources, ideas or manpower, their efforts help make our community a place we are proud to call home.
RICHFIELD - A group of people in Richfield are passionate about putting the Gospel in a shoe box.
Each year hundreds of area churches participate in Operation Christmas Child through Samaritan's Purse, a Franklin Graham ministry.
Shoeboxes are filled with toys and basic grooming needs for children of all ages and sent around the world. A group in Richfield is striving to make sure more people participate and that they understand why the ministry is more than just handing a present to a poor child.
"It's more than gifts," said Vonna Knouse of Richfield, the Susquehanna Valley Area Coordinator for OCC. "It's an opportunity to share the Gospel."
Knouse and a handful of others met at a Richfield restaurant recently to discuss the importance of branching out with the project. National Spokesperson Mary Damron, also known as "Mama Gump," and Leigh Fisher of West Virginia, the Mid-Atlantic Regional Director, joined them.
Richfield's mission
Knouse oversees collection centers in Snyder, Union, and Northumberland counties and surrounding areas. Richfield residents in Juniata County pick up information and drop off boxes at Guardian Angel Bookstore in Richfield.
Knouse noted that Juniata and Perry Counties are not assigned relay centers and therefore need to choose a drop-off location elsewhere. Many in eastern Juniata County have opted to use the drop-off from Guardian Angel Bookstore. These boxes are then shipped to Lewisburg Presbyterian Church, the collection site, where they are among 17,000 or more shoeboxes loaded onto a trailer to be taken to North Carolina.
Though there are many churches in eastern Juniata County and in Snyder County, there still are congregations that do not participate with the program in any form.
"Our goal is to get more churches involved," said Fisher, adding that an area of this size, should have more participation.
The Richfield area alone packed 2,200 boxes for children last year. A goal of 3,000 boxes has been made for the week of collection, Nov. 17 to 24.
The McClure area in Snyder County packed 737 boxes last year.
Good News Lutheran Brethren Church in McAlisterville is now a relay center for central and western Juniata County. These boxes are shipped to a State College church which also loads a trailer to head to North Carolina.
Pastor Mark Johanessen of GNLC said this is the first year the church is a drop-off site.
"There is nothing south of McAlisterville and Mifflintown, " he said.
Johanessen said he felt the need to participate since he had worked with a church in Minnesota that was a collection center to ship boxes overseas.
Since he came to Good News, the pastor said he was "looking for a good outreach, and this was it."
The church has a first-time goal of 500 shoeboxes.
There are currently no drop-off locations in Mifflin County according to the listings on www.samaritanspurse.org. The closest drop-off location for Mifflin County is Samuel's Church in McClure, First United Methodist Church in Mount Union and Grace Lutheran Church in State College.
Prayerful progress
The process begins with packing and praying, the crew from Richfield said.
Many do not realize, Fisher indicated, that boxes are packed and distributed all year round, not only at Christmas. Children in Malawi may receive their "Christmas" presents in April.
"You can start packing your boxes in January," Fisher said.
"I have 30 ready to go now," Knouse said. "I pack all year round."
Packing a box can cost as little as a few dollars and shipping is at a minimum of $7 a box.
Knouse said she "bargain shops all year round" and packs a shoebox for a little more than $7 plus shipping.
"There is a lady in Erie," Fisher said, "who packs a box full for only $1.65."
The struggling economy is not a fear factor for those involved with the program.
"When people see the opportunity for ministry they realize they can't outgive God," Fisher shared.
"Mama Gump" agrees.
"I think people identify more with those who have less than them."
Jana Grant, media team member involved with the Lewisburg collection site, said when Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast in 2005 the number of shoeboxes shipped abroad increased.
Part of the reason for the generosity is a commitment to the program, which for the majority is a commitment to God.
"The most important thing that goes into these shoeboxes is prayer," Fisher noted, as "Mama Gump" and others nodded their heads in agreement.
While boxes can be filled with various small toys and some candy, books, paper, crayons, toothpaste, hair brushes and other basic hygiene items, something personal can be added.
"It is also great to include a letter or photo to have an attachment to the child who gets the box," Fisher said.
Knouse and each had opportunities in recent years to attend a distribution in another country. Knouse was in Peru and watched as the children flocked to her and other helpers, eager to see what was inside the boxes.
"When I was in Peru, the time when they were the most excited was when they would see a photo and a letter. They would hurry to find a translator to read it to them."
Commitment to OCC
Richfield residents are so determined to minister through the project that 20 or more people travel to North Carolina during Thanksgiving to help go through the shoeboxes.
The area first became aware of the project more than eight years ago when Richfield Mennonite Church's youth pastor, Joel Snyder, was asked to bring a group of young people to North Carolina to help unload boxes.
That first year, Snyder admitted, he and others were not sure what the effort was about. "We didn't take shoeboxes, we didn't have brochures nothing."
Knouse was one of the female chaperones on the trip and her passion for the ministry ignited immediately.
"I remember when we got back home we had lunch and I told Joel, 'We have to get our church and other churches involved in this." She recalled thinking "big" in the beginning and suggested they one day take a tractor trailer full of boxes to North Carolina.
"And we've accomplished that," she noted, and much more, as she became more than a volunteer, but a coordinator for the area.
There is still more work to do, she said.
"We're trying to grow our area teams," Knouse noted. The Susquehanna chapter has community relations, church relations collections teams and prayer teams among other groups.
"It's a real challenge in this area to get the word out," Knouse noted, despite the energized enthusiasm of the few.
For more information on the Juniata County relay sites, contact Stephanie Freyermuth at Guardian Angel Bookstore at 694-3901; or Good News Lutheran Brethren Church at 463-4030.
