From Mark Fudge

The 2025 Operation Christmas Child shoebox drive came to a close on Monday, November 25, 2025 in Adair County. 3,677 shoebox gifts were collected from Adair and surrounding counties at the Wheet Fellowship Hall of the Columbia First Church of the Nazarene.

We want to thank all of the individuals, churches, and organizations that made this year's shoebox drive such a huge success. We also would like to give a special thanks to all of the volunteers that donated countless hours.

A special thanks to the Columbia First Church of the Nazarene for providing their Wheet Fellowship Hall during the eight days of collection. Also a special thanks to all of the coaches and athletes from Lindsey Wilson College and other individuals that loaded the boxes from Adair and surrounding counties on to Semi trailers.

The 3,677 shoebox gifts surpassed last year's total of 3,585 Gospel Opportunities. It's the most shoebox gifts collected in Adair County since 2016 when the county collected 3,777 shoebox gifts.

Please pray for the boxes as they now make their way to the next stop of their journey. The boxes will make their way to the processing center in Charlotte, North Carolina. From there the boxes will make their way to children and families in countries all around the world.

Based on information from Samaritans Purse In 2024, 3,261,771 salvations were recorded through The Greatest Journey discipleship program. That same year, a total of 11,927,439 shoebox gifts were collected and distributed to children in need worldwide. Based on these numbers, approximately 27% of the children who received a shoebox gift last year also received the gift of salvation.