On the count of three, more than 500 Sudanese children opened Operation Christmas Child gift boxes together. St. Lazarus Church in Lainya erupted in a deafening chatter as the boys and girls sorted through collections of colorful toys, school supplies, princess crowns, and rubber balls in search of special treasures.

“What’s this?” a 9-year-old boy named David asked an OCC worker, cradling a bright orange blob of Play-Doh in his palm. “Do you eat it?”

The worker quickly rolled and shaped the dough into a silly looking snake and made a hissing sound. Soon, Play-Doh snakes were everywhere.

In two days, more than 1,500 children in four churches heard the Gospel and received gift boxes as tangible expressions of the gift of salvation that is available to all through Christ. The children also went home with a Gospel story booklet called “The Greatest Gift of All” to read and share with their families.

The four churches in the Lainya area were all destroyed during Sudan’s civil war, but rebuilt by Samaritan’s Purse through our Church Rebuilding Project.

The 379 churches that have been reconstructed across Sudan are now busy community centers where people gather for worship on Sunday and for Bible studies, prayer groups, women’s programs, and youth activities during the week. The shoe box distributions provided an added opportunity to minster to children in the church and the community.

Pastor Rufus Leri welcomed Operation Christmas Child to St. Lazarus Church.

“The children are the foundation of the church,” he said. “If we want the Gospel to continue here, we need to lay a good foundation for the children with sound teaching from the Word of God. Without the children, there is no hope for the future. If the children just come to church to dance and sing, we have done nothing. We need to teach them about the Lord.”

Pastor Leri’s vision for the congregation is also evangelistic.

“The message needs to be taken out from the church to reach the unreached,” he said. “That is how the church begins to grow.”

St. Lazarus Church has more than 900 members, with another 500 children in the Sunday school. The congregation has outgrown the building Samaritan’s Purse provided and they are looking for a site to build a larger facility.

At neighboring St. Mark Church, a 12-year-old boy named Richard was excited to receive a gift box. He said he would use the writing pads he got for school, but for fun, his favorite gift was a ball. Richard also understood the spiritual significance of the gifts and the Gospel message they heard.

“I have accepted Christ,” Richard said. “Jesus is the way and He is our Savior.”

Children still make “toys” out of artillery shell casings they find in the tall grass that surrounds Wande Church. The church was leveled during the war and the hilltop property became a gun placement for warring troops on both sides of the conflict. Several church members were killed.

Samaritan’s Purse rebuilt Wande Church in 2007. The metal cross on the steeple and the sounds of 400 excited children receiving gift boxes inside were hopeful signs that the Comprehensive Peace Agreement reached in 2005 will last.

Sudan recently held its first democratic elections in 24 years, allowing many people to vote for the first time in their lives. In 2011, the people will hold a referendum to determine if southern Sudan will break away from the rest of the country to form an independent state. Politicians from Khartoum to Juba say they want to maintain a lasting peace, but the people remember how quickly that dream can vanish.

The rutted gravel road between Lainya and Juba is littered with grim reminders of the war. The twisted wreckage of bombed out trucks, a crippled tank, and skull-and-crossbones symbols with bright red letters warning of land mines serve as mile markers along the way. No one wants to go back down the path that leads to war.

When people see churches growing and watch smiling children opening colorful gift boxes they are encouraged.

Sixteen-year-old Jonan Mame received a gift box when she was 9. Today, she is a Sunday school teacher working with more than 100 children at a church in Juba. She tries to follow the example Christ set in Matthew 19:13-15, when He welcomed and cared for the children.

“I love the children and I want them to know God,” Jonan said. “God made them and the children must know God because He is the Creator.”

Jonan’s most cherished shoe box gift was a Bible that she still uses today to teach the children in her Sunday school class.

“The kingdom of God belongs to children,” Jonan said. “When you stay with the children and teach them, they respond.”

Jonan has seen many children who received shoe boxes start coming to church and eventually give their lives to Christ. She especially remembers a 10-year-old girl named Sunday.

“After she got a box, Sunday started coming to church where she heard the Gospel and was saved,” Jonan said. “Now she comes all the time.”

From Sunday’s example and Jonan’s own shoe box experience, she knows that the gifts and Gospel presentations can have a lasting effect on the children.

“Operation Christmas Child encourages children to come to my Sunday school class,” Jonan said. “The children say, ‘God bless the people who are sending these gifts.’”

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Samaritan's Purse , Sudan , Operation Christmas Child , Children of Hope