Christmas came early for children in Klipspruit West

The Church of Christ (COC) in collaboration with Operation Christmas Child (OCC) handed out 90 gift boxes to the children of Klipspruit West on May 28.

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Head pastor of COC, Euan Bloemstein shared that it was their first event for the year. The church is focused on the community and assisting where they can.

Bloemstein explained that a few years ago they had a feeding scheme that was self-funded and they also received some donations but for the last three years it became strenuous because donations stopped coming in.

“I am from Klipspruit West and my heart is here, many people feel that Klipspruit West is forgotten because it’s separated from Eldorado Park. I’ve seen people lose their focus in life; I’ve seen people who I grew up with who are now using drugs.

“People always ask why we bought a house in the area, why didn’t we leave to another area. My response is that why should we move? If all of the good people leave our community, what happens here? Our communities need good role models.”

Bloemstein learnt about OCC who has been giving Christmas gift boxes to children in our community for many years and when they met with representatives of OCC, they found that the purpose of the gift boxes is to evangelize to the children between the ages of 2 and 14.

The head pastor added that children in the community are going through so much and it is important to have structures like the church to support and guide them.

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“They are usually handed out to children over Christmas and we are far from Christmas but the organisation had many boxes stored at a school in the south. The school needed the space so that is how they gave us the boxes to evangelize to the younger generation,” said Bloemstein.

There are a few churches in the community that received gift boxes to distribute to children from the community.

The children did not only come to the church to get their gifts but they also received some clothes that were donated, soup, hotdogs and water. The day was filled with lots of fun as the children got to enjoy some games and learn about the gospel.