Growing up my grandmother would always take me and my siblings shopping around Christmas time. We weren’t shopping for ourselves, our family, or even our friends. We were shopping for someone that we didn’t know on the opposite side of the world; we were shopping for Operation Christmas Child. I used to love packing a shoebox to send out every year; it was fun, easy, and somehow even the elementary-aged version of myself understood it was a good thing to be doing. Until Friday though, I don’t think I ever quite understood why packing shoeboxes with presents and sending them to the undeveloped world is a good thing. Actually, after Friday, I now see that Operation Christmas Child is not merely a good program, but an amazing program.
Friday, MOH traveled to the remote village of Kwamba to distribute a truckload of present-packed shoeboxes to children in the community. We arrived at the Kwamba feeding-center around lunchtime and commenced handing out boxes. After several hundred boxes were distributed we moved locations to the local primary school to distribute there. All told we gave away over 400 shoeboxes. I can only begin to describe how beautiful it is to see a child receive, quite possibly, the first present of their life. Operation Christmas Child is not a means of community development; certainly receiving a shoebox full of toys does not solve the problems of poverty, hunger, or homelessness in a community. But, Operation Christmas Child is a means for loving others. The children of Kwamba will never know the person they received a shoebox from, neither will the person who pack a box ever see the smiling face of its recipient. But, at the receiving end of a shoebox there is guaranteed to be a smiling face and a child that feels loved. I am very thankful MOH has the opportunity to distribute shoeboxes. What a blessing it is!
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