Operation Christmas Child: My Testimony

Kosovo--1999

*****I wrote this five years ago after a volunteer requested it for a scrapbook she was making. I'll warn you in advance that this is a long one--and I actually edited some of it out. :o) Happy Packing!

Here is my testimony regarding Operation Christmas Child:

Operation Christmas Child has completely changed my life! When I filled my first couple of shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child in 1998, I never dreamed I would one day be working for Samaritan’s Purse! After all, I had not even heard of Samaritan's Purse until my home church became involved in Operation Christmas Child. Here’s how it all happened. I will try to be brief. :o)

I first became involved with Operation Christmas Child in 1998 through my home church in Tennessee. I didn’t even find out about it until the very day that folks were supposed to bring their boxes to the church. So, that day after the service, I filled a couple of shoe boxes for the project—which I totally got into! I loved the idea of being able to participate in world missions in a hands-on, tangible and fun way. I decided that I was going to start saving items to put in shoe boxes throughout the year so that I could prepare more boxes for the children.

1999--inside a collection-center trailer filled with cartons of shoe boxes

A few months later, I found out that one of my sisters also had a heart for Operation Christmas Child. We set a goal of filling at least 100 shoe boxes for the next season. We started shopping and collecting even more items and more shoe boxes. With help from several people, we were able to fill more than 100! That same year, as an editor for a newspaper in Tennessee, I was able to go on a shoe-box distribution in Kosovo. Of course, this was an incredible, life-changing experience!

To make a very long story short ... the next season, 2000, I became a volunteer Relay Center Coordinator in Tennessee. I enjoyed promoting Operation Christmas Child very much. Collection Week came and went, and being even more directly involved with this wonderful ministry was fun and exciting for me!

I was planning to be the Relay Center Coordinator for the next season, 2001, and had even attended a volunteer-training meeting in Nashville. But God had other plans, as I was offered a position working in the Communications Department at Samaritan’s Purse’s international headquarters in Boone, North Carolina! So off I went, moving to Boone.

I loved working at Samaritan’s Purse, and my love for the ministry continued to grow. A little over a year later, I accepted a position with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, and I moved to Charlotte. But I was still involved in Operation Christmas Child. I continued to host an Operation Christmas Child packing party each year, inviting friends over to pack shoe boxes for the children. This is a tradition I started when I lived in Tennessee. I also volunteered at the Charlotte Processing Center. And through my job in Charlotte, I was able to go on a couple more distributions in Veracruz, Mexico. In 2003, I moved to the Atlanta area to work specifically for OCC.

Panama--January 2004

Why do I love Operation Christmas Child? I have thought about this. One reason is children. I love children. And children need to hear about Christ. Another reason that has been amplified for me over the last year or so is ... evangelism. Reaching others for Christ is becoming more and more important to me (not that it wasn’t important before, but it is becoming more imperative for me). Then, gifts. I love to give gifts. (Giving gifts is my love language—for those of you who have read Gary Chapman’s book.) I love to wrap up pretty packages. I love picking out fun items that I think kids will enjoy! And I love Christmas! And missions! And being a part of the international community! All of these things are part of Operation Christmas Child.

To think that I can go to a local store, purchase items and wrap and fill a shoe box—from my living room—and that a child on the other side of the world will receive it, along with the Good News of Jesus Christ ... is sometimes overwhelming and so very incredible to me!
I know it doesn’t seem like it ... but I really am giving you the short version! :o)

God has blessed this project. We may never know the full impact of these simple shoe-box gifts. Last season, more than 6 million shoe boxes were collected and distributed around the world. Because Gospel literature is given out with the shoe boxes, that represents at least 6 million people who were exposed to the Good News of Jesus Christ. That’s AT LEAST 6 million. But think about it. When a child goes home with a gift-filled shoe box, the parents and the rest of the family (and perhaps others) are going to be curious about the gift and where it came from and why, etc. That just opens the door for more people to hear about and to experience the love of Christ.

Things that have impressed me from the shoe-box distributions I have been on: How patient and well-behaved the children are as they wait to receive or to open their shoe boxes. Also, the children—and these are children who live in very desperate conditions—will open their shoe boxes and try to give away some of the items inside. It’s like they cannot comprehend that the whole shoe box full of gifts—to us, not much at all—is all for them. Some of the children will take one thing out of the box and then try to give it back. Keep in mind that some of these children have never received a gift in their lives. And yet they want to share their gifts.

Something that seems to really excite the children: If the giver includes a letter and a photo. Many children will say that this is their favorite thing in the whole box! How interesting coming from children—some of whom have nothing! Here, they receive a box full of toys, and they say their favorite thing is a letter and/or a photo from a stranger. This “stranger” is the person who took the time to share with them the love of Christ. Sometimes, if possible, if the giver includes an address, the recipient might write the giver.

Panama--2004
I'm in blue on the right.

The shoe-box distributions are conducted by and through churches, missionaries and evangelical workers in these countries—people who live in the same communities, villages and towns as these children, people who are able to establish relationships with these children, people who can follow up with these children long after the shoe box distribution. The Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes are used as evangelical tools to equip and to encourage Christian workers in the distribution countries. For example, in Montevideo, Uruguay (an extremely secular country), one Sunday school teacher was very, very discouraged because only two students attended her class. She was on the verge of giving up. But after an Operation Christmas Child distribution there, 80 students were in attendance!

And it’s not just Christian workers overseas who are encouraged. God has used Operation Christmas Child to encourage church leaders here in the States as well. Just the other day, I received a call from a volunteer who told me about a small country church in Mississippi where—because of its participation in the project—attendance at the youth meeting has jumped from three (yes, three!) to, like, 12 or 13! This project can bring churches together as members of all ages work together to fill and to collect shoe boxes for hurting children around the world. It is a simple, hands-on mission project in which everyone can participate!

If these children (or their parents or anyone else) accept Jesus Christ as their personal Savior as a result of Operation Christmas Child—that’s the most important decision anyone can ever make. And what a difference that can make! It is our goal to share with these children the love of Christ and let them know that there is a God in heaven who loves them, and that that God has provided a way for them to be with Him for eternity. And, of course, that’s through salvation that comes only by accepting Christ as Savior. I can’t think of a more important decision or difference that can be made in someone’s life. And I am humbled and honored that God has allowed me to be a part of this very important work for HIS Kingdom.

Thank You, Lord.

What's your OCC story?
Have you packed your shoe boxes yet?