Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes help children living in extreme poverty to fight life’s battles.
Pays-Pourrie, Haiti. Otherwise known as “Rotten-Country.” No electricity, no roads, and no running water. The only way to get there is a four-hour hike up 3,000 feet.
Yet it is the home of hundreds of children, each deserving not only of a shoebox full of gifts packed by someone like you, but especially of hearing about God’s love for them.
“We started hiking before the sun rose at 4 a.m. with a dozen mules carrying gift boxes for 500 children,” says Michael Dytynyshyn, Operation Christmas Child regional manager for Haiti.
“Was that a tough hike? Yes, but it was all worth it because kids walked over an hour each way to come to this shoebox distribution.”
That is just one story about how children are blessed around the world as a result of Canadians packing shoeboxes through Operation Christmas Child. But the blessings go well “beyond the box,” in large part thanks to the donations that our generous supporters include with their shoebox gifts.
A portion of this donation covers the cost of running The Greatest Journey, a 12-lesson discipleship program we invite children to attend after they’ve received a shoebox.
These lessons begin by teaching about God as our Creator, and after covering several other Bible stories, end with a lesson about Jesus’ directive to “go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19, NIV).
“From my experience, the most appreciated story is the one about David and Goliath,” says Dytynyshyn.
Perhaps the story is so popular amongst children-in-need because many of them face terrifying giants every day: sickness due to unclean drinking water, no nutritional food, and a lack of medical care.
Thanks to your donations, we-with the help of our in-country partners-are facing those giants so that children don’t have to.
In Haiti, Operation Christmas Child and Samaritan’s Purse are helping to:
- educate mothers through our Maternal Child Health program;
- save thousands of malnourished children at our Cite Soleil medical clinic
Please get involved—again or for the first time—by packing at least one shoebox as soon as you can!
And as you pack shoeboxes this year, keep in mind that in Haiti alone, nearly 126,000 children have participated in The Greatest Journey discipleship program. Of those, more than 43,000 have come to faith in Jesus Christ.
