Published: Thursday, 13th November, 2008 9:30am

Callous break-in at church deprives poor kids abroad of Xmas gifts

CALLOUS thieves stole 40 charity boxes full of Christmas gifts for needy children abroad from a county church.

The heartbreaking discovery was made on Saturday morning after raiders entered Tranent Parish Church through a broken window.

Shoe boxes had been stored in the kirk, on Church Street, as part of the Blythswood Care Shoe Box Appeal, which collects gift-filled shoe boxes that are then distributed to needy children abroad.

Since 1993, Christian charity Blythswood Care has delivered more than 500,000 boxes to children in Romania, Serbia, Bulgaria, Albania, Hungary, Ukraine and Moldova.

The church had been collecting the boxes from its congregation for about a month and had been storing them in the lobby.

Each box contained gifts such as stationery, toiletries and toys, as well as £2 to cover delivery costs.

The Rev Jan Gillies, the church minister, said that anyone who had been in the church would have seen the boxes but they couldn"t be seen from outside.

'I don"t know if someone knew they were, there but they could have been looking for money and came across the shoe boxes,' she said.

'But they must have had transport to move all the boxes.

'It is very sad because they were going to make a big difference to children"s lives this Christmas.'

Linda Ingham, a member of the church"s congregational board, said: 'It is sad that the people who have very little will be deprived of getting a gift this Christmas because of the theft of the shoe boxes.'

Tranent Parish Church has collected shoe boxes for Blythswood Care for about five years and Blythswood have received more than 14,000 boxes in this year"s campaign.

James Campbell, Blythswood Care"s chief executive, said: 'A great deal of love and care goes into filling shoe boxes. People of all ages go to the trouble and expense of doing so because they know they are bringing so much joy to those in East European countries and in India.

'It"s extremely disappointing that anyone would steal these gift boxes. I would like to thank everyone in East Lothian who has contributed to the shoe box appeal.'

Police believe the raiders stuck some time between 7pm last Thursday 10.30am on Saturday.

A police spokesman said: 'They were all wrapped in Christmas paper and this is a particularly callous crime given these boxes are charity donations.'