Love in a Shoebox

Christmas is a time for sharing love with family and friends through gifts and get-togethers. It is also a time to remember less fortunate people with gifts and food – especially children. A gift always puts a smile on a child’s face. Right?

People in our area joined in packing 487 shoeboxes for children ages 2 through 14 in other countries. Lots of love went into each and every box. Many of these children have never received a gift or had anything that was truly their own. The gift put a smile on their face but did so much more. They are amazed to feel so loved by someone. Then they get an even more precious gift. They find out that God loves them, too. And that was why the gift was sent – so they could hear about God’s love. Samaritan’s Purse, through Operation Christmas Child, is hoping to sent 11.2 million shoeboxes this year. Shoeboxes were collected Nov. 13 through 20 and processed Nov. 22 through Dec. 16. Each box goes to one of eight processing centers across the U.S. where volunteers check to be sure it has a label telling the age and gender the box was packed for and that it does not contain anything that can’t make it through customs (such as food or candy) or anything that might spill and spoil the contents of the box. Anyone can volunteer to help at a processing center for any amount of time and any number of days to inspect the boxes and get them packed into shipping cartons. As the trucks get full, they are sent across the border or to a shipping port.

A processing center is an exciting place! Christmas music is playing and bells are ringing as people enter. There is a huge Christmas tree whose decorations include shoe boxes. A group is assigned to a processing table where there are five different jobs needed to get the box from the carton it arrived in from the collection site into the box it needs to be in for international shipping. The next person who touches the box will be the child who receives it.

The children love what they receive in their box and are deeply touched that

someone loves them that much! At the shoebox event they learn that Jesus loves them even more. There are many stories of a child receiving exactly what they most needed or hoped for. One boy got a big box of Band-Aids in his shoebox. Not every child’s dream! But he was ecstatic because he was a hemophiliac and needed Band-Aids in case he got a cut or scrape. Then there was Kwale in Tanzania who couldn’t go to school because he didn’t have shoes. He was discouraged by this. He prayed and prayed for shoes and was about to give up. Then a shoebox event was held at his church and he got a box with shoes in it. They fit perfectly! The most precious thing for some children might be markers or colored pencils because they love to draw and color. There was a boy in an orphanage in a war-torn country who said he didn’t want a shoebox when they handed them out. He said he just wanted parents. As he looked through his box at the school supplies, toys and hygiene items he spied a photo of the family who had sent the box in the bottom. He sent an email to the address included, they replied back, eventually went to meet him and ended up adopting him. So he found parents in his shoebox!

Samaritan’s Purse also has Disaster Assistance Relief Teams. They were on the ground in Ukraine three days after the war started. They met with pastors there to develop a relief plan. They needed a lawyer to process the paper work because of the government

upheaval. A particular lawyer’s name kept coming up so they contacted him and asked him what he would charge to do the paperwork. He said there would be no charge because he had gotten a shoebox as a child and wanted to give back. So, the love in a shoebox keeps spreading and blessing more people.