Event set for July 16 at Tri-State Worship Center

SOUTH POINT— Tri-State Worship Center is excited to host Nadia Karnatova, an Operation Christmas Child shoebox recipient from Ukraine, at 10:30 a.m. Sunday, July 16.

Operation Christmas Child is a program under Samaritan’s Purse that gives underprivileged children in other countries gifts for Christmas in a shoebox, and Tri-State Worship Center, which has been a part of Operation Christmas Child for a decade, is the collection center for Lawrence County.

“I think it will be really interesting to see how thankful someone is to have received a shoebox through Operation Christmas Child,” Vickie Edwards, drop-off coordinator at Tri-State Worship Center, said.
“We’re looking forward to hearing about the blessings someone received from a simple shoebox.”

Karnatova grew up in Ukraine as part of a large family, and although she said God always provided for them, they had very little.

When she was around nine years old, she and her siblings received shoeboxes from a local church through Operation Christmas Child. Inside hers, there was a brand new Barbie doll with pink shoes, and although she had seen a Barbie on TV before, she never thought she’d have one of her own.

Through this experience and the generosity of strangers, her and her family’s faith in God grew stronger.

In 2000, Karnatova’s family moved to the United States, where she now lives in Ohio with her three children.

At Tri-State Worship Center, Karnatova will share her Operation Christmas Child experience locally, after sharing her story in front of 4,000 attendees from 129 countries at the Operation Christmas Child Global Connect Conference back in April.

She is one of 146,000,000 shoebox recipients who have received the shoebox gift since Samaritan’s Purse began Operation Christmas Child in 1993.

Last year, 544 shoeboxes were collected at Tri-State Worship Center during the third week of November, and money collected at a cruise-in fundraiser at the church last year was used toward shipping 1,000 boxes packed at the church’s packing party.

Besides Tri-State Worship Center, other Lawrence County churches that take part in Operation Christmas Child include Campbell Chapel Freewill Baptist Church, Finley Chapel United Methodist Church in Proctorville, First Baptist Church in Proctorville, First Baptist Church of Burlington, South Point Church of the Nazarene and more.

Following speaking at Tri-State Worship Center, Karnatova is scheduled to speak at 1:30 p.m. at Trinity Chapel Church of Christ in Christian Union in Jackson and at 6:30 p.m. at Chillicothe Baptist Church in Chillicothe.

Tri-State Worship Center is located at 901 Solida Road in South Point.

For information on Samaritan’s Purse’s Operation Christmas Child ministry, visit www.samaritanspurse.org.