Operation Christmas Child

Operation Christmas Child is in full force in churches all over the area. Participants simply take a shoe box and fill in with small items, notes, pictures, toys, or whatever they feel within the guidelines of the program. The boxes are then shipped all over the world to children who otherwise, would not know the celebration of Christmas. Here are the sto- ries of two who received these boxes.

KOJO

My family of nine shared a one-room clay house. We had little money or food. My mom worked in the local high school cafeteria and fed us with leftover rice and peanut soup. My dad worked in a sugar cane field. They loved us very much.

I walked two miles to school every day. During my long walks, I prayed and sang. I didn’t have enough money for lunch, so during that pe- riod I climbed a tree and waited in hunger for class to begin again. I am grateful for the challenges and financial difficulties I faced as a child, though, because they made me rely on God.

One Friday morning when I was 12 years old, my friends announced that they were not going to school that day, so I went alone. That after- noon, most of my classmates had already gone home when we heard a loud noise. The teacher told us to go outside and see what was happening. We found that children from four to five other schools had come to join us for a program about God. During this spe- cial event, I received Jesus as my Lord and Savior.

The leaders taught us the song “Jesus Loves Me.” Nor- mally when I learn a new song, it doesn’t stick—but this one did.

Then they started distributing shoeboxes. Going to school that morning, I felt tired, but when I got the box, I felt so strong. I felt something new. I was so excited I ran home to show my box to my family. I had never received a gift be- fore, but inside my shoebox I found a yo-yo, a toy car, and some pencils—pencils made in the United States! I felt so proud that someone in Amer- ica loved me.

When my friends saw my gifts, they ran all the way to school to try and get one too, but they were all gone.

God used my shoebox to plant a seed in me. I started going to church every Wednesday and Sunday. I just wanted to sleep in the church because David said, “I was glad when they said unto me, ‘Let us go into the house of the Lord’” (Psalm 122:1, KJV). I made the Lord my No. 1 priority.

I don’t have the yo-yo any- more. I don’t have the toy cars lum College and will graduate in December. My plan is to be a pharmacist in order to con- tribute to God’s mission in the world.

ALINA

Alina received a shoebox at age 5 in a Central Asian country.

My family and I had what we needed, but gifts were a luxury we didn’t always get. So when I received a shoebox gift, I stood there baffled and confused. It seemed impossi- ble for someone overseas, for someone I didn’t know, to send me a gift for Christmas. I carefully undid the tape and unwrapped it. In the box, there were ponytail holders, a toothbrush, socks, and candy.

What caught my eye were a pair of plastic princess shoes. Those shoes were like nothing I had ever seen. They were pink, and I loved the color pink. I got so excited when I put on those shoes. They were too big, but I still wore them. I tried to wear them as much as I could. I showed them to everyone. As I looked closer through my shoebox, I found a photo- graph of a little girl the same age as me. She was wearing a tiara that matched the shoes I received. Her gift to me be- came so personal—I felt like I connected with her.

Before I received the shoe-

me.

After I received the shoe-

box, the persecution I experi- enced for my faith in Him didn’t stop. But my reaction to it was different because of the way God had revealed Himself to me. No longer did it feel like He was looking down at me from far away— He was walking right beside me.

To this day, 13 years later, I still remember what it was like to receive a shoebox. In that moment it felt like God was there giving that gift to me.

As the years went by, memories of God’s love, ex- pressed through the shoebox, stirred up this passion in me to tell children, especially or- phans, the Good News of Jesus and to help them feel His love—the same love I felt and still feel.

I’ve been packing shoe- boxes ever since my family came to America. For the past three years I’ve been volun- teering at a collection center. Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes are gifts that keep on giving. They are a tangible representation of Jesus’ love for me and millions of kids around the world.

These boxes change lives. I’m just one of many whom God has drawn closer to Him- self through a shoebox gift.