Children and adults at First Baptist Church gathered at the church’s Family Life Center Wednesday night to help make the life of a child in another country a little brighter and a little better.

Operation Christmas Child, a 16-year tradition at the church, was underway with children packing plastic boxes with toys and other items for children ages 2 to 14. The boxes also included information about the sender and a letter to the child who will receive the box showing where Vicksburg is on a map and their address, so the child could write back if they wished.

Operation Christmas Child is a ministry of Samaritan’s Purse, a nondenominational evangelical Christian organization founded in 1970 that provides spiritual and physical aid to people around the world. Its organization’s name comes from the Biblical story of the Good Samaritan.

The boxes to the children can include toys like small cars, balls, dolls, stuffed animals ad other items, school supplies, hygiene items like toothbrushes, soap, combs and washcloths, and items like ball caps, socks, T-shirts, toy jewelry and picture books.

No toy weapons or war-related toys, no liquids or medicine or breakable items are allowed.

“We can no longer send candy to children, because customs (officials) in some countries will not allow it to pass through” said Hester Pitts, Operation Christmas Child director for Warren County. She said the boxes from First Baptist will be checked before they are shipped to make sure no inappropriate items have been packed.

Pitts said the items for the children were originally packed in cardboard shoeboxes, but First Baptist went to plastic boxes because the children can use them for other things like carrying food or water or milk.

She said First Baptist is not the only church participating in the program, adding the church serves as the central Christmas Child collection point for Warren County.

The church will begin collecting boxes Nov. 12 and they will be shipped Nov. 18.

“We will pray over them and then we’ll load them into an 18-wheeler and they will be taken to Pear Orchard Presbyterian Church in Ridgeland,” Pitts said. “From there, they go to Atlanta (Georgia), and then about 12 of us will leave the Sunday after Thanksgiving to work in Atlanta.”