Project Noel is a delivery system built on the connectionalism of The United Methodist Church in Oklahoma. Its purpose is to distribute gifts, allocated to the Oklahoma Conference by an anonymous source, primarily to children in need in communities across the state.—Statement of Purpose You must register your church online, www.okumc.org/ProjectNoel,  for the third year of this holiday ministry.

To participate in Project Noel this holiday season, your church must register online to take part in the anonymous gift delivery network within the state.

The Internet address is: http://www.okumc.org/ProjectNoel.

You will find all the information and resources packaged together at this one site to help your church share the joy of Christ’s birth by gifting other Oklahomans, especially children.

You will find: registration and reporting forms, the inventory list, details about pick-up sites, ideas for distributing gifts in your community, worship resources such as "A Blessing of the Gifts," even a Reflection Guide, and more.

In its third year, Project Noel is sponsored by the Oklahoma Conference’s Small-Church Commission, chaired by Amanda Lockwood of Wewoka. About 70 churches participated last Christmas.

This year, Rev. Lockwood is directing all participating churches to monitor the Internet site for updates about deliveries and inventory. No hotline will be operated to answer questions by phone.

"You must register online and check for updates online" this year, she emphasized. "The Web site will be updated as often as possible."

Lockwood expected the initial inventory list to be posted online this month. Shipments are unlikely to arrive before Thanksgiving at the three Oklahoma pick-up sites.

3 sites in state

Those sites are:

• a warehouse in Oklahoma City;
• Burns Flat (old school building); and
• Henryetta-First UMC.

Lockwood also said the commission needs volunteers to help coordinate pick-ups at the three sites.

To help, contact Joe Tilton, 580-331-7733; or the Wewoka church, where Lockwood is pastor, methodistwewoka@sbcglobal.net, 405-257-3105.

To order shirts that display the Project Noel logo for your church’s use, contact Cookson Hills Center, 918-457-5181.

Each year, the distribution process begins in anonymity beyond Oklahoma.

Unidentified donors allocate mystery gifts for distribution by Project Noel and other similar programs across the nation. Trucks loaded with the items begin making deliveries according to closely guarded shipping schedules.

"We do not know specifically what we will receive, and we do not know exactly when it will arrive," explained Lockwood. None of the shipments in previous years have contained any clothing.

The value of the gift allocations increases each year that Project Noel continues to partner with the anonymous delivery network, Lockwood noted. For Christmas 2008, one trucker delivered a semi filled with Leapfrog-brand educational computer games.

Yet Small-Church Commission members seemed more surprised last year by the response from people who received gifts of blankets. "The families seemed more grateful for the blankets than the toys. What does that say about what people really need?" Lockwood pondered.