Contact: Sally Ross
Tel. (805) 543-2644 x590 Email: sally.ross@parable.com
(November 4, 2013) – The Parable Group announced the winning store of their Attend-a- Distribution-Trip-with-Operation-Christmas-Child contest. The winning store, Sounds of Light in Adrian, Michigan, owned by Mary and Louis Schaap, will receive an all-expenses-paid, 5-day trip to Barranquilla, Colombia for two to distribute shoeboxes with Operation Christmas Child.
Hopeful applicant stores submitted photos and earned virtual tokens for their local OCC efforts. Virtual tokens could be earned for a variety of efforts, such as creating in-store displays, contacting churches, partnering with local OCC area coordinators, ordering Hygiene-in-a-Bottle kits from Oodles World, posting on social media, and hosting a shoebox packing party. Sounds of Light was drawn from a pool of over 3,000 tokens on Monday, October 28.
“Operation Christmas Child is sharing the Gospel with children all around the world and we are thrilled that Mary and Louis will get to see first-hand what all those efforts look like in the eyes of children receiving shoeboxes,” said Nancy Randise, Marketing Coordinator for The Parable Group, who joined Operation Christmas Child on a shoebox distribution trip to Ecuador in 2012.
Travel will take place January 27-31, 2014. The winners will be handing out shoeboxes at several locations throughout Northern Colombia. The winners will also meet with Colombian grass-roots churches and area pastors to help with local outreach in their communities.
“We feel so blessed that God is allowing us to be a part of this trip! We’re so excited to get to experience the other end of this project and see kids actually receiving their boxes,” said Mary Schaap, owner of Sounds of Light. “Our upcoming trip is already allowing us to build more excitement and publicity for Operation Christmas Child since the local newspaper and radio are picking up our story. It even seems that some of our customers are even more motivated to pack a shoe box. We are praying for the hearts of the children we get to serve and we hope you will all pray as well.”
Steve Potratz, President and Founder of The Parable Group commented, “We are honored to be ministering alongside Operation Christmas Child to bring joy and the Good News of Jesus’ love to children around the world. We’re extremely proud of every store’s local efforts promoting Operation Christmas Child.”
Operation Christmas Child, a project of the international Christian relief and evangelism organization, Samaritan’s Purse, headed by Franklin Graham, is the world’s largest Christmas project. Since 1993, the project has hand-delivered more than 100 million shoe box gifts to needy children in more than 130 countries.
The Parable Group currently provides multi-channel service options that allow any Christian store to select the service mix that is right for their business—whether it be data services, digital/email services and print/mail services. Stores can be part of any marketing group, or not affiliated with one at all, to receive services.
For nearly 30 years The Parable Group has helped independent stores buy, promote and sell products using data, technology and marketing expertise in the Christian market. The Parable Group is a leading retail services provider specializing in print and digital marketing for independent Christian stores, and delivering innovative, industry-leading marketing solutions connecting products and services to Christian consumers. For more information, contact Sally Ross (sally.ross@parable.com) or visit www.parablegroup.com. The Parable Group is based in San Luis Obispo, CA.