Serving with Samaritans Purse: Operation Christmas Child

Back in April me, Isaak, and the girls gathered bright and early one Saturday morning to team up with some friends to go help distribute shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child. And then two weeks later I set out again to help with another distribution.

It was truly a surreal experience. One that I look back on and think, "I can't believe we actually got to do that!"

When I first heard that some friends of ours here are Samaritan's Purse representatives and are responsible for the distribution for Burkina Faso as well as other West African countries...I jumped at the opportunity to help them in any way that I could.

Operation Christmas Child is a project that our family has been helping with in the States for many years along with millions of other people. Every November we would buy toys and hygiene products, filling them up in little boxes to be sent to children in need all over the world.

(filling up Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes with the girls in 2010)

However, never once did it cross my mind that we might someday have the opportunity to place those very boxes in the outstretched arms of those we were sending them to.

But yet there we stood, in a crowded school house in Burkina Faso, with hundreds of eager faces gathered all around, getting to witness firsthand the final stage of this amazing ministry.

I discovered through this experience that this ministry is so much more than just the buying of gifts and dropping them off at a donation site. Operation Christmas Child is a complex ministry that requires the time and faithful commitment of thousands of people all over the world. It's incredible to believe that the boxes gathered at churches and other drop off locations across North America make it to countries like Burkina Faso. And it wouldn't happen without a whole lot of peoples help.

When we lived in the States and donated gifts to this ministry each year, I couldn't even fathom just how much work went into this program. The process of seeing a shoebox through from A to Z is incredible and the journey looks a little something like this...

First, millions of people generously donate their finances to go out and purchase a variety of products to bless children in need all over the earth.
Next, they bring their boxes to designated drop off locations, usually no later than mid-November.
From there the millions of boxes donated are picked up and transported to processing centers throughout the US.
Next, every single box (millions of them) is inspected (by thousands of volunteers) to ensure that all the gifts are child appropriate and to also ensure that every single country receiving shoe boxes customs requirements are met.
The millions of shoe boxes are then boxed up (by volunteers) and labeled according to country.
They are then loaded onto trucks or huge containers (by more volunteers) to begin the journey to its designated country.
Once in country every single box (tens of thousands depending on country) has to again be inspected in order to clear customs.
Finally they are transported (tens of thousands) to the local churches and ministry partners on the ground in each country to distribute to the children.

In countries like Burkina Faso where there is no port access, the boxes are sent to neighboring countries and cleared through that countries customs, and then unloaded and re-transported via train or truck to Burkina Faso where they again have to be inspected and cleared through customs and then transported to the capital where they are stored and organized according to each and every site in the country receiving shoe boxes. The villages and sites receiving shoe boxes are determined long in advance of the arriving boxes. Our friends Joel and Heidi Hayslip who are the Samaritan's Purse representatives here in Burkina work with pastors and churches all over the country and heavily rely on the local churches to submit requests for shoe boxes and send them specific information needed to determine how many boxes are needed, the ages of the children and number of each gender to make sure that the right amount of boxes, boy/girl boxes, and specific age boxes are available.

Once all of that is organized and in place Joel and Heidi, with the help of their team and a large local body of helpers, set up a schedule to again transport and deliver all of the boxes to the hundreds of different locations throughout the country. And once they are all delivered to the different areas where the distributions will take place they then arrange with each the local villages a time for the children to be present to receive their gifts. Joel and Heidi then compose groups of more volunteers to be present during each distribution to help hand out the boxes and most importantly bring the gospel of Jesus to these kids!

It. is. a. lot. of. work and preparation just to get to this point right here!

Months and months and months of tireless work just to get to the point where the children are present.

It really is incredible to consider all of the people working together from start to finish to ensure that these children are blessed. 

Millions of people serving the Lord by sacrificing their finances and thousands more serving the Lord by sacrificing their time to bring gifts to some of the neediest children in the world.

Talk about an incredible team effort. It is truly fantastic and so humbling to be a part of, on any level, such a life-investing ministry.

Each weekend I served with S.P. we visited two different locations in the mornings. Upon arrival the people from the villages would be waiting outside shouting and cheering as our cars pulled up. This is the day they have been waiting for!

Like kids on Christmas morning they were positively giddy. They would run and surround the cars, clamoring to shake our hands, their excitement bubbling over and absolutely contagious. Everyone from the surrounding areas packed in close, standing in doors and windows just to catch a glimpse of the mornings excitement.

Joel and Heidi along with their team are missionaries here with Go To Nations who work specifically with children's ministry are experts at sharing the gospel in a fun and engaging way to kids. So as the children were gathered close in the churches and schools....our team paired up in groups of two and acted out some skits.

I was a chicken each time. I clucked and flapped with Lisbeth and we talked about how we think we're chickens.

Didier, who is an integral part of the Go To Nations team, asks why we think we're chicken and we tell him our mom fed the chickens rice, and then fed us rice, so we must be chickens too.

But look, you have arms, not wings, he says.

But I'm all like, "Nah dude, check it. I got wings."

Oh wait a minute, what do you know, I've got arms after all! We went back and forth like that acting out a series of different things for a few minutes.

Some were motos zooming around because they thought they were motos.

Some acted like monkeys because they were convinced they were monkeys.

And lastly others acted out being "Christians" running up and down the aisles shouting Hallelujah and reading the bible, thinking they are Christians because their parents are and they go to church.

The point of the demonstration was to teach the kids that we're not Christians just because we go to church. Being a Christian means having a relationship with Jesus.

It was fun, simple and straightforward. I absolutely love this kind of stuff. It's so much fun getting to be completely goofy for Jesus.

Then there was a puppet skit in Mooré that further shared the Gospel.

And finally the full story of Jesus and God's grace and love was shared with them.

The kids had an opportunity to give their hearts to Jesus, and all over the room there were hands raised high, declaring their desire to follow Jesus.

Afterwards the pastor led the children in a time of prayer, speaking love and grace and truth over their lives.

Following the presentation of the gospel we lined up the hundreds of kids present and began distributing their boxes.

One by one they would come forward and we would place the gift in their hands. The gift that had been prepared for them months earlier.

These boxes, for most of the children present, are the only gifts they have received all year. For some it may be the very first gift they have ever been given. The first crayons they've ever used. Their first coloring book. Their very first stuffed animal or new ball. When a family has neither electricity or clean drinking water and struggles due to the harsh soil to grow enough crops to put food on the table for more than two meals a day....these children don't get extras in the form of new toys. Toys to these children are bicycle tires that they run with down the street. Toys are sticks and rocks. Toys are mounds of dirt. These children have never owned a barbie or teddy bear or toy airplane. These boxes put flip flops on feet that came with no shoes. They carry pictures of families and notes with prayers to let these kids know there is someone somewhere that was thinking of them.

These boxes communicate that they are not invisible nor are they forgotten.

These boxes signify people all over the world working together to bring hope and encouragement and love and joy to children who may never know it otherwise. These boxes speak worth into the hands that receive them. It is a reminder that regardless of where you've been born and the conditions in which you may live, you have value. That Jesus sees you. That He has petitioned other people's hearts to see you too. That He will move in every way possible and remove every obstacle to show you the depths of His love. Through a shoebox. Through a skit. Through a puppet show.

Scripture tells us that, "Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. If one person falls the other can reach out and help." These boxes represent the reaching. The tearing down all that separates our worlds and reaching across the gap to fill in the space with our Father's love. It proclaims that we are to love each other and show that we love each other because He first loved us. "If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion-how can God's love be in that person? Dear children, lets not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions." 1Jn. 3:17-18

This is what scripture lived out looks like. This is what loving each other because He loves us looks like. It is the assembly line of hands reaching across continents to bring Jesus' love in the form of a shoebox. 

And in receiving their shoebox they are not just leaving with one free gift....they are now able to walk away with two free gifts.

 "Le plus grand de tout les cadeaux" 

"The greatest of all gifts"

If you've ever wondered the impact that these ministries really have...let me assure you, a huge one. One that can not be measured in any earthly way. What an incredible honor we have to get to partner with the Lord to carry His love out to others.