Faith: Clovis church given 10-year service award

Staff photo: Brooke Finch

Parkland Baptist Church Pastor Wayne Boydstun, left, accepts a 10-year service award from Operation Christmas Child Amarillo Network Coordinator Karen Copeland on behalf of the church.

Staff Writer

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Members of the Parkland Baptist Church have proven that, even in July, it’s never too early to get into the Christmas spirit.

The Clovis church on Wednesday was awarded for its 10 years of service with Operation Christmas Child (OCC).

Through Samaritan’s Purse, an international relief and Christian evangelism organization, OCC has delivered gift-filled shoeboxes to children in need since 1993.

For Clovis and surrounding areas, including Portales, Grady, Muleshoe, Friona and Melrose, Parkland Baptist Church serves as a relay center — a shoebox drop-off location where members of the congregation gather boxes year-round. They then deliver the boxes to the Amarillo collection center during National Collection Week in November. From there, the shoeboxes are shipped overseas into the hands of children ages 2 to 14, just in time for the holidays.

According to OCC Panhandle Collection Network Coordinator Karen Copeland, who presented the award, Parkland is one of five relay centers around the Texas Panhandle. It’s no easy task to be a relay center, she said, especially to do so for an entire decade.

“(This award) is a really big deal,” Copeland said before giving her presentation. “Ten years is a long time because it’s hard, hard work with wonderful volunteers. There are some relay centers that don’t make it very long because it is such hard work.

“But when they’re willing to do the work, it’s just an amazing thing for the members as well as the community and the organization.”

According to the Samaritan’s Purse website, more than 124 million children in at least 150 countries affected by war, poverty or natural disasters have received the tangible love of God and of volunteers worldwide.

With a $7 donation online, volunteers receive a surprise of their own; they can purchase a tracking label to discover the box’s final destination.

The age and gender-specific boxes are filled with toys, stuffed animals, shoes and hygiene products.

Church members say perhaps the most valuable item is one you can’t put a price tag on.

Every box contains a pamphlet called “The Greatest Gift,” which provides a short presentation of the Gospel written in the child’s own language.

“(The children) get the opportunity to, maybe for the first time in their lives, hear about Jesus,” Copeland said during her award presentation.

For this reason, Copeland said the boxes are called “GO” boxes, meaning “Gospel Opportunity.”

Handing over the framed plaque to Parkland Baptist Church Pastor Wayne Boydstun, Copeland said, “Thank you so much for your participation, and especially your dedication, because Operation Christmas Child can’t do what it does without you. You’re the backbone, and we love it.”

In 10 years, the number of shoeboxes gathered per year in Clovis and surrounding areas has increased from 1,500 to more than 2,500 as of last year, according to Boydstun who’s been there every step of the way.

“What I’ve enjoyed most are the friendships and relationships that have developed with churches and partners with us in this,” Boydstun said, “and the number of folks I’ve become acquainted with.”

For Boydstun, the prize for 10 years of service wasn’t receiving the award on Wednesday.

“The win is the fact that we know that for every one of those shoeboxes, a child somewhere receives a gift and a pamphlet in that shoebox that tells them the story of Jesus,” he said.

“It’s a very unique way of being able to share our faith with a child thousands of miles away.”