Sunday school gives back with Operation Christmas Child

Mandy Penner, 8, left, and Nisa Bontrager, 9, were among about 100 children who paired up to put together shoe boxes full of small gifts for less fortunate children in developing countries around the world during Operation Christmas Child at Bradley Street Church of God in Aylmer on Sunday afternoon, Nov. 30. Operation Christmas Child was part of the Sunday school’s Christmas Party. This year, the Sunday school pupils decided to give Christmas gifts to poor children in other countries rather than give presents to their Sunday school teachers. The countries the boxes would be transported to included ones in Africa, South America and Eastern Europe. Items in the boxes were partially gender specific and included shirts, toothbrushes, scratch pads, journals, pencils, pencil crayons and sharpeners, stuffed animals, dolls, toy cars, baseballs, hair barrettes and candy. The afternoon also included Christmas hymns, snacks and a video showing how Operation Christmas Child changed the life of a woman who grew up in Romania and who now lives with her husband and three children in Canada.