VALDOSTA — Christmas is arriving early all over the Valdosta area, as a local church prepares to serve as a collection point for Operation Christmas Child.

Soon, with the help of Valdosta-area volunteers, this site will be brimming with festively wrapped shoe boxes full of gifts.

Through Operation Christmas Child, the world’s largest Christmas project, Valdosta-area residents are packing shoe box gifts for children in more than 100 countries suffering from natural disaster, war, terrorism, disease, famine and poverty.

From Valdosta, the shoe-box gifts will be sorted and sent using whatever means necessary — sea containers, trucks, trains, airplanes, boats, camels, even dog sleds — to reach suffering children around the world.

“Operation Christmas Child is a unique opportunity to do something as simple as packing a shoe box that will have a lasting impact on a child a world away,” said Anne Eanes, Operation Christmas Child collection center coordinator. “Those who help at the Valdosta drop-off location find it fun to watch as gift-filled shoe boxes stack up that have been donated by our generous community.”

Operation Christmas Child uses tracking technology that allows donors to “follow your box” to the destination country where it will be hand-delivered to a child in need. To register shoe box gifts and find out what country they are delivered to, use the EZ Give donation form found at www.samaritanspurse.org.

In 2008, the Valdosta area contributed 9,932 shoe-box gifts to the Operation Christmas Child effort. This year, organizers hope to collect 10,500 gift-filled shoe boxes from families, kids, churches, schools and civic organizations in the area.

Since 1993, Operation Christmas Child, a project of international Christian relief and evangelism organization Samaritan’s Purse, headed by Franklin Graham, has delivered more than 69 million gift-filled shoe boxes to needy children in some 130 countries.

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO GET INVOLVED:

PREPARE: Enlist families, churches, scout troops, community groups and businesses to take part in creating shoe-box gifts for needy children worldwide.

PACK: Fill shoe boxes with school supplies, toys, necessity items, hard candy and a letter of encouragement. Step-by-step shoe box packing instructions are available at www.samaritanspurse.org.

PROCESS: Sign up to join Operation Christmas Child volunteers at the collection site in the Valdosta area as part of the effort to prepare millions of shoe-box gifts for delivery to underprivileged kids on six continents.

For more information on how to participate in Operation Christmas Child, call (770) 777-9342 or visit www.samaritanspurse.org. National Collection Week is Nov. 16-23.

• Local collection site: Baptist Collegiate Ministries