It’s purposeful fun split between continents.

On this side of the Earth, more specifically at Zion United Methodist Church in Prosperity—a dozen elementary-age youth rodeoed presents Tuesday night into 25 boxes for children half a world away.

“The best part is that a needy child is going to get something you gave them,” said Ryan Shealy, 11, who filled two boxes for two boys.

Shealy guesses one box he filled ends up in China and the other in Africa.

In Operation Christmas Child, children with few possessions in poorer countries get shoeboxes filled with gifts from have-plenty Americans for Christmas.

“The mission of Operation Christmas Child is to demonstrate God’s love in a tangible way to needy children around the world...” says the program’s Web site.

“This is important, really important for all children around the U.S. and everywhere because it’ll help the children everywhere learn about Jesus Christ,” Shealy said.

The program was started by Billy Graham’s son Franklin, and caught the attention of Zion’s former youth leader Julie Barnes, who now leads the church’s children’s group with Lisa Shealy.

Participating in Operation Christmas Child is an annual event for the kids’ group.

“This is our community project, our mission (where) we give back,” said Barnes.

Zion’s kids shop for and then pack presents every year with the help of their two group leaders and money given monthly by the congregation for youth projects.

This year, Jacob Barnes, 4, picked out little matchbox cars for boys’ shoeboxes during shopping trips to Wal-Mart and The Dollar Tree.

The matchbox cars were splayed over two oblong tables in a Zion Church classroom with other gifts like mini toothpaste tubes, deodorant, dolls and candy.

But before children rushed to the tables to fill boxes, Julie Barnes gave instructions:

Think about the age of the child you’re filling the box for, and use purple box lids for girls and blue for boys, she told them.

“Alright. Y’all ready to make an assembly line?” she then asked.

Jordan Barnes, 11, paused briefly at the beginning of the path around the tables, picking through a bundle of hair rubber bands to find the right ones for the girl who would get her box.

“I’m just getting the sparkly and the regular,” she said of the colored hair ties she held in her hand.

Her box was for a girl between the ages of 10 to 14, so before adding the hair bands, she packed in deodorant, a brush, soap, a washcloth and candy.

Others on the assembly line route decided the candy was a good choice, too.

“Will we get some? Excuse me, Mrs. Juile. Will we get some?” asked one 4-year-old boy eyeing a chocolate-flavored sucker.

Julie Barnes explained that they would not get the gifts, but that they were packing boxes for others.

Then when the young man reached the end of the line, Juile Barnes tucked in some hygiene items into his candy- and toy-laden box.

“I don’t want these,” the boy said.

“No baby, these are not for you,” she said, again explaining that the boxes would go to the less fortunate.

But Zion children who were too young to feel the thrill of filling shoeboxes still get a treat. The group takes an annual pizza outing after delivering its boxes to the Newberry drop off site at The Lutheran Church of the Redeemer.

After seeing how others in the community have also brought in boxes, the group will dine at Pizza Hut or Mig’s depending on “whichever one we can get into—” says Julie Barnes

“—with 25 kids on a Friday night,” adds Lisa Shealy laughing.

“We make it a big outing and the kids always have a good time,” Shealy says.

Relay center coordinator Jane Moose for the Redeemer will accept Zion’s 25 boxes along with the roughly 1,200 other boxes from other Newberry families to send to a bigger collection site in Columbia.

Moose first filled boxes eight or nine years ago but found shipping to Operation’s home site in Charlotte, N.C. too expense. So she opened Redeemer as a box drop site to connect with the Columbia’s collection site that then transports boxes to Charlotte.

But before the Zion boxes even head to the Redeemer, Zion’s pastor Lowry Drennen clarified the shoebox purpose.

“Lord, we send these to show that, indeed, you care,” he prayed.