Shining the Light of God’s Love

The last memory Nana has of her village is of flames shooting through rooftops and screams echoing through the streets as she joined her neighbors in a desperate flight for safety.

Nana was seven months pregnant at the time. She and her husband, Bagrate, owned a modest two-story house and a store in the Georgian town of Xeiti. They were caught by surprise on the afternoon of August 6 when Russian forces assaulted their quiet community, dropping bombs and setting fire to many buildings.

With no time to gather their belongings, the couple sped away in their car, veering around burning vehicles. They kept driving until they ran out of gas, then continued their escape on foot—an arduous undertaking for Nana.

Xeiti was among 36 villages burned or bombed by Russia in a territorial dispute with Georgia over the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The city of Gori also sustained damage from bombing raids. The conflict left hundreds of civilians dead or injured, and displaced tens of thousands. Many of the survivors remained holed up in dilapidated school and abandoned buildings, afraid to return to their villages and rebuild.

In December, heartache gave way to hope for thousands of Georgia’s suffering families as Operation Christmas Child teams began blanketing the war-torn region, bearing gift-filled shoe boxes and the Good News of God’s love.

We came across Nana and Bograte living among the refugees crowded into old military barracks in the town of Koda. Among the 350 boys and girls who received shoe box gifts was the couple’s daughter, Lizzie, born two months after their harrowing escape.

“Thank you for the gift,” said Bograte. “We are trying to make our lives as normal as possible, but it is difficult. We have only the hope of God to get us through this.”

At another refugee center in an old school building outside of the capital of Tbilisi, 50 children heard a presentation of the Gospel and received words of comfort from a member of the Operation Christmas Child National Leadership Team in Georgia.

“We are bringing gifts that were specially prepared for you by children in America,” explained Pastor Gela. “They want to encourage you during your time of crisis.”

One at a time, the children walked to the front of the classroom to receive their boxes and Greatest Gift of All Gospel booklets written in the Georgian language. They returned to their seats and patiently waited until every child received a box before they opened them.

One girl lifted a cuddly brown teddy bear from her box and cradled it in her arms. A teenage boy got a green baseball cap and slapped it on his head, grinning.
For the past decade, Pastor Gela’s Pentecostal church in Tbilisi has worked with Operation Christmas Child to help deliver shoe boxes to youngsters in some of the poorest neighborhoods in the country.

“We are always trying to expand our ministry to children,” he said. “The boxes give us an opportunity to reach out to them in a way that would not be possible otherwise. They are a good tool for explaining to them who Jesus is and to share the Gospel with them.”

His church began offering the 10-lesson Bible course through the Operation Christmas Child follow-up discipleship program. Over 100 children enrolled in the program at first, and the pastor requested lessons for 500 children afterward.

“I remember one boy whose parents wouldn’t let him come to church. That was before he received the Bible lessons,” Gela said. “Now they have given him their blessing to go to Sunday school.”

Pastor Gela notes that the hardships and uncertainty have prompted many Georgians to turn to Christ like never before. People seem more open to hearing God’s Word, and there has been an increase in the number of families who attend his small church. Along with that revival has come a heightened desire to minister to those in need in their community, particularly those affected by the war.

“We distribute food and clothing to the refugees. But we want to give them something deeper than physical help,” he said. “These people are hurting. We talk to them about Jesus Christ, and it’s a great blessing to see the powerful change in their hearts.”