God Uses Shoebox Gifts to Change Children for a Lifetime

In just a few weeks, the Operation Christmas Child Charlotte Processing Centre will buzz with the joy and laughter of 29,000-plus volunteers funnelling through the over 120,000-square-foot space. These thousands of dedicated workers will help prepare some of the millions of gift-filled shoeboxes we will send all over the world to share the true meaning of Christmas—the birth of Jesus Christ—with boys and girls in need.

Last year, a 20-something Reyel stepped into that massive warehouse to volunteer, only to be overwhelmed by God’s goodness as he recalled receiving a similar shoebox as an 11-year-old child in Nicaragua.

“I was excited,” Reyel said. “The word ‘gift’ was not part of my vocabulary—it simply wasn’t.”

Back then, a typical childhood game for him was to imagine that the mud in his village was snow. He would make “snowmen” out of mud and throw “snowballs” of mud with his friends.

“I was really dirty after that,” Reyel said, explaining that his family who lived without electricity or running water, would go to the closest river to clean up and wash their clothes.

Like Someone’s Birthday, Only Better

On the day of the Operation Christmas Child outreach event at his church, he remembers the rooms being decorated “like it was someone’s birthday. There was music, balloons, a lot of colour all over the place. I’d never seen something like that before!”

Red-and-green shoeboxes filled the room. Operation Christmas Child volunteers were playing games and singing with the children. After hearing the Good News of Jesus Christ presented in a child-friendly way, one of those shoeboxes was placed in Reyel’s hands.

“My first memory of it was the way it looked,” Reyel said.

He even remembers the unique way the box smelled and how excited he was to open it up and find it so full of colour and many new things.

The marbles, toy cars, and shirts inside surprised him, as did notebooks, pencils, and a wallet.

“This wallet I did not need at the time, but I kept it because it looked so new in its case,” Reyel said. “It really meant a lot to me, so I kept it in my shoebox with a letter that was in English—I wasn’t able to understand it at the time.”

Even Greater Gifts

Reyel also enrolled in The Greatest Journey discipleship programme at his church. Through the 12 lessons taught by a trained local volunteer, he learnt even more about how Jesus Christ was sent as God’s Greatest Gift to free humankind from sin.

More than two years later, he said, he opened his shoebox gift again because “I finally had some cash in my hands, and I wanted to use my very nice wallet that I had kept.”

This is when he also found the note written in English, which motivated him to study the foreign language. After three years of study, he was able to read and understand written English and could appreciate the details in the letter about the boy who packed his shoebox and why the shoebox was important to the family who had sent it. The boy had closed the letter with the words, “Jesus loves you.”

“At 17, I really didn’t believe that anybody loved me,” Reyel said. “I was confused about life and was involved in a lot of consequences of my decisions. But I decided to believe it and started to read my Bible.” As he read God’s Word, he realised he needed to put his faith in Jesus.

“My life started to change after that.”

Reyel began serving as a translator for missionaries. He also began to recall and share with others the truth about God that he’d learnt in The Greatest Journey all those years before.

Several years later, at age 20, he was invited by one of those missionaries to move to the United States. This is how he eventually ended up in Charlotte processing shoeboxes. He still has that wallet he had received in his shoebox.

“I cannot describe it. But that shoebox planted a seed, and it was a great reminder of the love of Jesus. So, I have kept this wallet for over 10 years now, because it’s a great reminder of that gift, but also, most importantly, the Greatest Gift, the love of Jesus. I want to encourage you that maybe you are not able to see who’s going to receive your shoebox, but I can guarantee you that it’s going to impact their life.

“I’m a great example of that. Thank you for what you do.”

Perspective from Latvia

Kristiana, another shoebox recipient, speaks from experience when she reminds people of their influence on children when they pack a shoebox gift.

“I appreciate each one of you for your partnership with Operation Christmas Child,” she tells them. “Every shoebox is an opportunity for sharing the love and light of Jesus with children around the world.”

Kristiana received a shoebox as a 12-year-old living in the Baltic states.

“For me, receiving an Operation Christmas Child box and hearing that Jesus loved me no matter what I’d been through, felt like the most loving hug, and it brought light in a time of darkness,” she said. “My childhood in Latvia was very difficult.”

Kristiana and her two younger sisters grew up without a father, and their mother’s alcoholism kept her from being able to care for them or hold a job. Kristiana recalls moving into a 100-year-old house without plumbing and having to rely on a wood stove for cooking and heating.

At age 6, Kristiana began taking care of her siblings, walking them to kindergarten before going to school herself. She often worried about where they would get their next meal. She and her siblings would face even more difficulty in the following years until they were taken from her mother and placed in an orphanage when Kristiana was 10.

“I did not have to worry about meals or safety and could enjoy the luxury of hot water. But while on the outside things looked better, on the inside I felt broken. Despair and hopelessness lived in my heart, and I did not believe that good things were possible for me.”

Faith, Hope, and Love

Then two years later, Kristiana recounts, she walked into a room where music was playing, colourful Gospel posters from Samaritan’s Purse were on display on the stage, and volunteers with huge smiles greeted her. She had just stepped into an Operation Christmas Child outreach event!

“I learnt about Jesus and His love for me,” Kristiana said of the special event. “I learnt that He loved me, the broken kid.

“I did not grow up with presents for Christmas or birthdays. The shoebox I held in my hand was the biggest gift I had ever received.”

Inside her shoebox she found a hairbrush and hair ties, school supplies, and watercolour paints. She said these gifts all spoke love and hope to her as an orphaned girl. Also included in the box was a photo of the girl who packed it posing in a beautiful blue gown.

“Seeing that picture in my shoebox gift made me feel seen, and it gave me hope,” Kristiana said.

Even more important was how God used that prayerfully packed shoebox gift to lead her to accept His Son, Jesus Christ, as her Saviour. Kristiana said this began her life of trusting God and His plans for her life and learning how to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

An Unexpected Future

In answer to those prayers, Kristiana, 17, and her sisters, 15 and 12, were adopted by a Christian couple from the state of Georgia.

Years later, when Kristiana first prepared to share her testimony of God’s work in her life through her shoebox gift, she came across a picture of herself on prom night. After staring at it a long time, tears came to her eyes. She was wearing a blue gown, the same colour as the girl pictured in the shoebox gift all those years before.

“God had used a shoebox to change my life in ways I could have never dreamt possible,” she said.

Today, Kristiana makes a point to pack gift-filled shoeboxes with toys and other fun items to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with other boys and girls around the world.

“I’m grateful for every shoebox packed, because every shoebox presents an opportunity to share God’s unconditional love with children and remind them that they are cherished and that they matter. You are making a difference that will have everlasting impact.”

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