On a recent balmy December day, thousands of plastic bags packed with simple toiletries were piled high in the fellowship hall of St. Andrews Baptist Church, Columbia.
For more than 30 years, churches across South Carolina have been assembling packets as Christmas gifts to inmates in the state’s correctional system. Each packet is filled with a toothbrush, toothpaste, a writing tablet, embossed envelopes, a writing pen, a bar of soap, and mints or candy.
After packets are turned in to the associations, each bag passes through Columbia to be inspected by convention staff, prison chaplains and other volunteers before distribution. A scripture booklet and Christmas card are inserted. Inmates from correctional facilities in Columbia assist in checking the packets, including a number of former inmates who have received packets in the past.
Christmas packet collection centers on the support and kindness of thousands of people, including more than 100 volunteers who assisted in packet collection, the American Bible Society (which donates all the scripture booklets inserted in each packet) and church members who assemble packets. For the past few years, Mountain View Baptist Church in York has seen an exponential increase in the number of packets assembled by their church. When pastor Ken Lane joined the 45-member church, the congregation was assembling 15 to 20 packets a year.
“I challenged them and set a goal of 160 packets,” Lane said.
Starting in August, the church begins promoting the collection and has members bring an “item of the week.” One week, the church may collect toothpaste; the next, bars of soap.
For the 2007 packet collection, this tiny upstate church assembled 165 packets.
“Our members really support missions,” said Lane.
In all, 25,700 packets were assembled, 1,200 more than the total inmate population of 23,767. Packets were distributed to inmates in the weeks before Christmas. Additional packets were also distributed to the Department of Juvenile Justice.