Inspirational Stories

Every year we hear stories about how simple gift-filled shoe boxes are transforming individuals, communities, and nations around the world. Volunteers are touched by their experiences filling, preparing, and packaging gifts for children in desperate circumstances. Pastors in countries where gifts are shipped are empowered to reach out to their communities with a tangible expression of God's love. Churches are growing. Communities are changed. And one more child has been blessed in a meaningful way.

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SLIDESHOW

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The slide presentation includes images from shoe box distributions in Uganda and Peru. May you be blessed knowing that these events are happening in great measure because of the Lord's work through you.

The Gift of Receiving

PHILIPPINES

From a ministry partner:

Receiving a fully-packed shoe box made one young boy very happy. His mother is a laundry woman and his father is a janitor and is partially paralyzed. He helped pay for his Grade 3 schooling by driving a wooden trolley along a railroad track. He lived in a house 2 meters away from the railroad track and is an active member of a pioneering Presbyterian church.

The gifts were personalized for the recipient of the box. Letters, cut-outs, and posters were with it. His box was amazing! It came from a retired Union Pacific railroad worker and was received by a boy who transports people using a handmade trolley that runs alongside a Philippine national railroad track. Amazing! God connects people by a railroad track!

MALAWI

From Kondwani:

Everything I got was of great value. My mum has just given birth to a baby boy. In the box there was a beautiful blanket, three pairs of baby clothes, sweets for all of us, soap, and toothpaste, just to mention a few items. All these things my daddy could not afford to buy. Please send our sincere gratitude to the people who sent us these gifts. Everybody is happy. These are gifts from God.

KAZAKHSTAN

From a child:

Greetings! My name is Aigul. I am 13. I am Kazakh. All the members of my family (grandmother and grandfather, brother, sister and parents) are Muslims. One day my classmate Zhanna asked me to the Zion church. She said that there would be a great Christmas holiday. I decided to go, and I liked it very much. There were a lot of children. We read the Bible, prayed, played games, and sang songs about God. My brother, sister, and I began to go there every Sunday. But our family was against that. They said that we are Muslims and forbade me to go to the church. One day when they all went to the marketplace, I ran to the church where there was a holiday celebration. I received a gift from America. At first I had been very happy, but then I got upset that members of my family might find out about my church visit.

We and our teachers from Sunday school prayed for my relatives, and then I went home. My parents were at home. When they saw me they were angry. I boldly went to the living room and set my box there. Everyone began to look carefully at the gifts. My father took the cross and hung it on a ring of keys. My mother took a postcard. Then they asked about a meeting for adults in the church, and all my relatives except my grandfather went to the church next Sunday. In the church my mother cried very much, maybe because God touched her heart. Now we have a Bible in the house, and every evening from 8 until 8:30 p.m. we read it in turns. Our life was changed due to God and the gift.

RUSSIA

From the parents of Nina:

We are thankful to the Lord for your kind hearts. God made a miracle and showed His love and care for our daughter through you. She had been dreaming about a teddy bear! She asked us many times to buy her one, but we couldn't afford it. All we could do was to pray and believe that God would answer her prayers. She prayed every night before going to bed about a teddy bear, and she dreamed about having one and singing lullabies to him.

She got so excited when she received a gift and opened the box. There was a teddy bear inside the box! Just like the one she had been dreaming about. There were also many other toys, crayons, and candies. God fulfilled the need tremendously. It was a great example of God's love to our daughter. Now she understands that it is very important to open up your heart and bless someone, to serve someone. Tonight before she went to bed she prayed and asked God to bless those who sent her such a wonderful gift. Then she embraced her teddy bear and fell asleep.

LIBERIA

From a ministry partner:

The children took their gift boxes home to their parents with large smiles on their faces. Their parents were very happy because this was the first time their children had received such items. Upon hearing the Christmas message, the children received Christ immediately. Through faith in Christ, their parents became saved, and today a local church has been planted in the town. The families that felt hatred for one another are now Christian families loving one another and worshipping God together. Glory be to God and many thanks to Operation Christmas Child.

The Joy of Giving

FORT WORTH, TX

From a volunteer:

We had been hosting packing parties in our neighborhood and had really been blessed by being part of Operation Christmas Child. When we reached the collection center to drop off our boxes, we saw many people had brought a lot more boxes than we had. It inspired me to involve more families for the next year.

I loaded my two boys, ages 3 and 4, into the car to drive home. We had just pulled onto the highway, and I heard the voice of my youngest son from the back seat. He told me that he wanted to ask Jesus to live in his heart. I was so surprised and tried to keep focused on my driving! I knew that the Lord had touched his heart. We prayed right then, and he received Christ as his Savior.

Through the packing of gifts for children in need, my son got to see the Lord's hand at work. Many prayers and circumstances prepared him for this. However, Operation Christmas Child played an important role in his salvation. This program ministers to and blesses all those who participate, whether preparing boxes or receiving them. Thank you for allowing the Lord to minister through your example of His sincere love.

IN THE U.S.

From a ministry partner:

For a moment this morning, life seemed to come full circle. My family now resides in south Florida, and we regularly worship at Calvary Chapel in Fort Lauderdale. I felt so overwhelmed with emotion when our pastor made announcements about Operation Christmas Child during the morning worship. The short Operation Christmas Child video brought tears to my eyes. You see, three years ago, my outreach ministry was serving in one of the poorest sections of Manila. That year, the children received Operation Christmas Child shoe box gifts.

As a pastor's kid and later a Christian worker, I've never seen any program that created such spiritual impact on the lives of poor children and their parents. And I've never seen so many happy faces nor heard one great chorus and exclamations of joy as I did from these 200 children who opened their shoe box gifts all at the same time! Their joy will remain imprinted in my heart.

"God loves our children." "God has seen us." "God reached down His hand to us." "Jesus loves me!" These were just some of the comments heard for many months. More than a hundred of those children have continued to attend Sunday school regularly, even after I turned over the ministry to my brother when my family migrated to America. Many of the parents have come to know the Lord too.

Now, I am amazed that God is giving my family a chance to continue participating in OCC, this time from the other side of the world. Life really came full circle! I am fervently praying that God will continue to do more mighty works through the ministry of Samaritan's Purse.

ORLANDO, FLORIDA

From a supporter:

Channel 52, a Christian TV station that served as a Collection Center last year, needed more volunteers to help with the influx of shoe boxes. They contacted the county jail and several inmates were brought in to help. Some of these men were Christians, but many were not. They were so excited about helping. They jumped right in unloading shoe boxes from cars and loading them into the cartons. Even their guard became caught up in the moment and started unloading and loading and forgetting for the time being that his job was to watch the inmates. On that day, one of those prisoners accepted Jesus Christ into his heart. That is what Operation Christmas Child did for one lost soul.

FROM THE U.S.

From an eighth-grader who packs boxes:

It is gratifying that I put a smile on the face of someone who is less fortunate than me. I love to find different and unique toys to put in my box. I also love the fact that the boxes are filled with Christmas joy, a joy that many may not have had before.

COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA

From a mother:

We are a home schooling family and are striving to teach our daughter godly ways. Your project has been life-changing to her. She asks questions about the children in Bosnia and prays for them. It has opened a world she had never known, not from the perspective of politics and the nightly news, but through the eyes of God. Thank you for helping us to remember the "least of these." We appreciate your work for Him.