Children’s Pastor Testifies of Effectiveness of Program
Carlton Hughes, a children’s pastor in Kentucky, relays his testimony about his experience with the well-known benevolent charity, Operation Christmas Child, and the effect a smaller church can have on their community.
By Carlton Hughes
In 2001, I became the children’s pastor at Lynch Church of God in Lynch, Kentucky. That summer I attended a Promise Keepers Rally/Conference in Knoxville, Tenn. During a break I scanned the product tables on the concourse of the arena, and I picked up a brochure for Operation Christmas Child (OCC). I returned to my seat and started reading. I read a story about 12-year-old boy who had received a box, and he was very excited because he loved to draw and got his first-ever box of crayons in that shoebox. There, in an arena with 15,000 men, God broke my heart for OCC. I went back to my church and talked to my pastor, and he agreed to let me spearhead the project there. That first year, in a span of a few months, we produced 37 boxes.
Over the next few years the project grew, as my small church embraced shoeboxes as a missions project. Our church is well-known in the denomination for supporting various missions projects, and OCC became another “cog in the machine,” if you will. Our church members have opened their hearts and embraced the simplicity of the project. I often tell them that we may not be able to go to Africa, but we can take a missions trip to the local Dollar Store and have the same impact on the lives of children around the world. We have couples who scour the local store for sale items every month. One lady in our church had collected Beanie Babies for years and donated her entire collection to us one year for our boxes. Our children and teens get into the act as well, and they absolutely love the project.
Several years ago we decided to “take back Halloween,” and we do our packing party every year the Wed. night of Halloween week. Last year was our biggest night ever, and our teens and children even invited friends who don’t normally go to our church. Last year we did 450 boxes (from a church that averages about 65 to 70 people on Sundays).
Pastor Hughes, far right, poses with volunteers at the OCC processing center.
After a few years our regional coordinators took notice of the small church with big amounts of shoeboxes, and we were asked to be a relay center. For the past five years we have collected boxes from across our rural Eastern Kentucky county, and I have spoken to various groups/churches about the project.
Our church has also taken several trips to the Shoebox Processing Center in Boone, NC. We have served alongside people of different denominations and walks of life, all with the same goal of reaching children around the world. I remember the last time I volunteered there, I worked on the line with a young lady who had just joined a non-denominational church in the Boone area. Here I was, a graying Church of God children’s pastor, working with a young lady covered in tattoos and piercings. I smiled as I realized none of those outside trappings mattered–we were both serving out of the love of Jesus.
In summary, I feel that OCC is not about denomination. It’s about Jesus–spreading His love and His Gospel to children around the world.
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Carlton Hughes is children’s pastor at the Lynch Church of God and a Certified Lay Leader in the Church of God. He is also the 2013 recipient of the Shepherd’s Cup Award for Children’s Ministry in the Church of God.
