Esmeralda startled her daughter Fernanda awake as Hurricane Otis roared over their town just outside of Acapulco. Gentle words did little to sooth the 10-year-old’s fears as she saw the terror in her mother’s face, especially as the sheet metal roof peeled away.
“I told them, ‘We’re going to stay here and nothing’s going to happen. We’re OK,’” Esmeralda said. “But it was more fear than I’ve ever felt.”
Hours before, as Fernanda fell asleep, it had only been a gentle rain. Now, Otis was a Category 5 storm, the strongest ever to hit Mexico’s Pacific Coast.
It was very cold. They shivered and prayed as they hid under the bed. Fernanda’s cat was with them, clawing under them for cover. Then the rest of the roof caved, covering the bed and trapping them as the mud poured in, quickly filling the floor through the walls of their one-room home.
Everything they owned was being buried, and so were they.
“That mud was ugly,” Fernanda later said as she recounted that night, which included the heroism of her grandfather.
Somehow the ailing man had made it from four houses away, alongside another of his daughters. He burst into the home and shouted “Let’s go!” He pulled off the sheet metal and dragged them out of the mud.
“I was paralyzed with fear! But God sent my dad,” Esmeralda said. “Even though my dad can’t walk well, he came to save us. I don’t know how, except God gave him the strength to help him walk.”
They fled for cover, walking bent over into the wind as sheet metal roofing sailed like blades overhead. Across the way, an apartment owner had given shelter to Fernanda’s grandmother, her aunts and uncles, other family members, and neighbors. Now Esmeralda and her daughter were safe.
Bundled in borrowed clothes, Fernanda warmed up but could hear through the apartment walls as roofs continued to peel and homes continued to fill with rain and mud. The whole apartment trembled in the force of the wind.
Then it was calm. The sun came up. And Fernanda and Esmeralda could see through the open door how Otis had ripped up the homes in their community. When they returned to their own abode, only the walls were there—the walls made of palm tree timbers roughly nailed into corner posts. Everything else was drenched by rain or filled with mud.
All was lost. Dishes, furniture, beds, and valuables. The children’s clothes and all their books for school. Even Fernanda’s cherished notebooks and crayons were gone.
The October 2023 hurricane took lives and destroyed homes across the state of Guerrero’s coastal areas, leaving a city and surrounding towns in ruins. Samaritan’s Purse responded shortly after, working in Jesus’ Name alongside local churches to provide water filtration systems, shelter, food, mosquito netting to protect against dengue fever, and solar lanterns that kept homes illuminated at night in communities without electricity.
Then we worked with hundreds of churches to host Operation Christmas Child outreach events, sharing the hope of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and providing shoebox gifts for children in need—children who’d lost everything.
Fernanda and her family were invited to attend one of these outreach events by a local pastor in her neighborhood.
Days later, as she and Esmeralda walked from their house to Iglesia Cristiana Filadelfia, several blocks down the dusty road, they could hear the music and laughter from a distance.
Esmeralda watched as Fernanda found a seat with the other kids. They played games and sang songs. It was one of the few happy events the family had experienced in the weeks since the storm struck, and one of the most tangible reminders for the children that generous Christians were thinking about the city’s young people.
“I found some kids from school there. We played a fun game of Piojo Juancho. We prayed. They taught us how the heavens and the earth were made, how God made the water and the animals, and Adam and Eve,” Fernanda recounted. “They taught us about Jesus, too.”
Fernanda was also excited to attend The Greatest Journey 12-lesson discipleship classes, which the church invited her to during the event. She’ll be able to learn more about Jesus Christ and what the Bible says about following Him.
And when Fernanda opened her shoebox alongside the dozens of other children, her eyes widened with delight. Inside she found a toy boat, little toy kittens, socks, and, most exciting, notebooks, colored paper, crayons, and pencils.
“I was excited because I wanted to draw many things—like flowers and cats—and a picture of how God took care of us during the storm,” she said. “My box also had a letter, from a 12-year-old girl named Abel who wants me to send her a letter. I’m going to write her a letter to tell her thank you.”
Esmeralda said the storm and everything that’s happened after the storm, especially the love shown by the church and by Samaritan’s Purse, has encouraged her to reconnect with God and other believers. And she also wants to be an encouragement to other hurting people, the way others have encouraged and helped her and Fernanda.
“It’s very beautiful to see the children’s smiles because of the gifts,” Esmeralda said. “For children it is very significant. They will remember this forever because it is in the moment of childhood that marks many things in your life.”
She has also become friends with the pastor and his wife, people she and Fernanda has never known before. And now she’s excited to pursue what God is calling her to do in the community—to remind people of what God has reminded her about in the midst of crisis.
“Sometimes people are going through hard times and they need a word or just a hug,” she said. “And I want to tell them that ‘Jesus Christ loves you and He is with you even in difficult times.’ God has shown us that even in the most difficult moments, He brings the right people. These gift boxes and the church are a blessing to us and to this whole community.”
Please donate $12 for every shoebox you prepare. Your donations will help cover project costs, including shipping (make one combined donation for multiple shoeboxes). Consider making an additional donation to help Samaritan's Purse go beyond the shoebox and expand assistance to children, their families, and their communities. Samaritan's Purse does not provide receipts for the value of gift items included in a shoebox.