Samaritan’s Purse President Franklin Graham is encouraging prayer for the millions of children who soon will begin receiving shoe box gifts from Operation Christmas Child.

“If we had 8 million people praying for 8 million children, do you think God just might do something really special with these boxes?” he said at a media event at the Charlotte Processing Center on Thursday. “So many of these kids are not loved and they feel abandoned and alone. Continue to pray for children around the world, that God will use this program to touch them in a special way and that they will come to know the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Tanya Poteet experienced that life-changing touch while an orphan in Russia. Numerous people in the audience wiped away tears as the young woman shared how Operation Christmas Child has transformed her life.

Tanya and her siblings had been removed from their abusive home environment and placed in separate state facilities. Life in the orphanage was not a vast improvement. It didn’t help when she was told that she was there because no one loved her.

One special act of kindness when she was 10 years old gave her the hope she needed. On New Year’s Eve 1999, she received a shoe box gift from Operation Christmas Child. Inside her box were clothes, a CD player, and a teddy bear.

“It was the first present I ever got,” Tanya recalled. “We never celebrated birthdays or Christmas. Most of my parents’ money went to alcohol.”

The shoe box was a precursor of more blessings to come. At the age of 15, she was adopted by a loving Christian family in Missouri. Although they already had three children of their own, the Poteets also adopted her brother and sister.

Her first Christmas in the United States was a joyous occasion. It was also the first time Tanya participated in Operation Christmas Child from the giving end. She has been hooked on the project ever since, packing boxes each year and even going on a distribution trip to Ecuador this past August.

“How different my life is today,” she told the gathering in Charlotte. “This is my time to share the love that someone showed me all those years ago.”

When the morning event ended, warehouse volunteers returned to their work stations and to their various duties of sorting, taping, and preparing the boxes for shipment overseas. The message board inside the main entrance announced that the day’s boxes would be shipped to Tajikistan, Albania, and other faraway lands.

An estimated 1.8 million shoe boxes will go through the Charlotte warehouse this Christmas season. Over 700,000 shoe boxes already had been processed as of Thursday.

Boxes also are being processed in Boone, North Carolina, Atlanta, Minneapolis, Denver, and Santa Ana, California. The United States collection goal for 2008 is 4.9 million boxes, with another 3.1 million boxes anticipated from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and participating countries in Europe.

“On so many levels, Operation Christmas Child is life-changing for everyone involved,” said Terry Pilon, a volunteer from Albany, New York. “These boxes don’t just contain toys. There is reconciliation and healing in these boxes—for the people who pack them as well as for the families receiving the boxes. We are sending children the precious gifts of hope and love.”