Our first full day in Tbilisi was a busy one, and quite an eye-opener to some of the suffering that the people here endure on a daily basis. I am traveling with a group from Operation Christmas Child, delivering shoe box gifts to war refugees. I can’t think of a place I have ever visited that is more in need of a little Christmas cheer.

This former Soviet republic has seen its share of turmoil since gaining independence in 1991. Most recently, a five-day conflict erupted in August between Russians and Georgians over the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Thousands of civilians were killed and hundreds of thousands were left homeless.

We held two shoe box distributions today. The first was in a school, where some of the classrooms are now being used as residences for families displaced by the war. As harsh as their living conditions appeared to be, it was nothing compared to the bleakness of the next site.

Surely this can’t be the right place, I thought as we drove through a dingy back alley and parked our contingent of vans and cars near the rusted shell of an old Russian Lada. Empty cigarette cartons and pieces of trash were scattered across the lot.

A glance up sent a shiver through me that had nothing to do with the bone-chilling rain. I was looking up at an ashen gray monster of a building that once had served as a newspaper printing company during the Soviet days. Abandoned for many years, its concrete walls were now crumbling and numerous windows were broken out.

Up on the third story, clothes were strung out across a line between windows to dry. Children’s voices could be heard inside. I was astonished to learn that 200 families live here. Or perhaps it is more accurate to say that they have been abandoned here.

This eerie, broken down old building looked like a prison straight out of a horror film. For its occupants, it is a nightmare from which there is no way of escape.

After handing out shoe boxes to 150 children, our team decided to visit one of the families. With our flashlights, we carefully walked up the darkened stairwell and down a hallway to a room that was illuminated by one bare bulb. A tiny electric coil heater was their sole source of warmth. A propane stove in the corner served as the oven. Pots and pans were stacked on one side table. Cots, neatly covered with blankets, were used as both beds and sitting areas.

We were welcomed inside by a 28-year-old woman named Maka. Three adults and three children call this room home. Maka shared her story, how she gathered up her children and fled as Russian planes dropped bombs on their rural village. That was four months ago, and the memory still haunts her.

“Houses were on fire,” she said. “There was panic. Everyone was running from their homes.”

How different their life is in Tbilisi. On their farm they were self-sufficient, with a plentiful supply of eggs, milk, butter, cheese, and vegetables. Here, they have no fields to plow, no garden. They are dependent upon government rations of beans and noodles. There is no work to be found.

Her husband is in the Georgian army, and they barely get by on his salary. Maka says they want to go back to their village, but there is nothing left to return to anymore.

Maka smiled as she watched her sons Georgi, 12, and Michael, 10, play with their little 2-year-old sister Ia. They were immersed in the gifts they found inside their Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes. The stuffed animals and toy flutes were their favorites.

Although the gifts can’t change their living conditions, the message of love that comes with the toys and candy brings a ray of hope to Maka’s family and others like them.

“We are very happy and thankful to the children in America,” she told us. “My children received joy knowing there is someone out there who is thinking about them. The boxes brought them joy they haven’t had in the four months they’ve been here.”

I said that we would be praying for them. Please join me in those prayers. Tomorrow we will visit some of the bombed-out villages. I will report on what we see in my next blog.

Keep packing those shoe boxes!

Samaritan's Purse , Georgia , Operation Christmas Child , Journey to Georgia