For as long as I can remember, every Christmas my mom would get my sisters and I together and we would help her fill different shoe boxes with gifts that would be distributed to Children around the globe with a project called Operation Christmas Child. Many people have heard of Franklin Graham, Samaritan Purse's founder's project, and in fact has been promoted in Canada, the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Germany.
My friend Steph has had the awesome privilege of spending a day volunteering at one of the shoe box sorting days that take place in the larger cities for each of these countries, where the shoe boxes are sent once they have been packed to be checked before going to customs. While there last year she was able to see a direct result of a Christmas Shoe Box, as well as hear many other stories. A fellow volunteer working with her was actually a girl attending Calgary University, originally from Africa. She told Steph the story of how as a little girl she was given a shoe box filled with school supplies as well as other fun things. That gift inspired her to continue in school even when it was expensive for her family, and looked down upon in her community because she was female, and eventually she ended up studying medicine at U of C. She saw the impact that a small gift can make first hand, and how God can make miracles come in pretty little gift-wrapped boxes, and wanted to take her turn on the other side of that miracle.
Another story she told me was that of a young boy in South America. The gifts had been distributed to the group of children all gathered from the community, and all had opened their gifts except this boy. When asked by one of the distribution volunteers why he hadn't opened his gift yet, the boy looked up with tears in his eyes and said that the only thing he prayed for, for Christmas was a mom and a dad, and he knew that they could not fit into a box so small. The volunteer, heartbroken for the boy, encouraged him to open the box anyways and when he did, amongst the gifts inside was a letter and a photo of a couple. They had left their address and the volunteer encouraged the boy to write to them. Three years later the couple were able to finally adopt this boy and bring him to live with them in the states.
Final story I will share is of a mother who, with her three young children, ran to a distribution drop off center, hoping that she was not too late to let her children pick out a box. Sadly the volunteers replied that all the boxes had already been given out, all except one that had been damaged along the way. The mother assured them that she did not mind, as long as there was something for her kids to share. When they opened this seemingly worthless box, she discovered a hundred dollar bill in a crisp white envelope. She attempted to return it to the volunteers, they insisted she keep it, knowing that God had meant this gift to go to her family. Steph explained that part of their jobs while sorting was to remove anything with high value such as this from the gifts because people are warned these things cannot go into the gifts because it creates a risk of the distribution trucks being attacked by rebel groups thinking they hold great wealth. (Which has actually happened, people have died attempting to deliver these gifts in certain countries- just a little something O.C.C does not advertise)So for this envelope to make it through their sorting at the warehouse, and again through customs unnoticed was a God thing.
After listening to Steph's stories, one thing she said stuck out to me and inspired me to use my love for knitting to make something special for a child somewhere. She said that many people that fill the boxes don't realize that they also send them to places like Russia, Eastern European countries, etc. and that they actually specially mark boxes with warm clothing/ gifts inside to be sent specifically to those countries.
It was really fun continuing this Christmas tradition my mom started now that i'm on my own, especially after hearing some of the stories that show how God can work in something as simple as a shoe box.
I hope you find these stories as interesting and amazing as I did- and remember the 'reason for the season' as it begins!
http://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/OCC/Pack_A_Shoe_Box/
