Operation Christmas Child

This month the local committee of ch*rch leaders for Operation Christmas Child asked for help to distribute 450 cartons of shoe boxes to different locales.  Most of the applications for boxes were completed by local believers, but since we expats are able to rent hospital 4x4's, several of us applied for boxes to take to some more remote villages.  I was pleased to be able to be a part of a four-person team that drove 3 hours into the "bush" towards a village where we had a contact.  After leaving the paved road and heading north, there were no ch*rches or known believers along our route.

We drove through millet fields and open scrubby areas along dirt and gravel roads.  The rainy season had created many pockets of mud and puddles along the route.  The drive was a challenge, as we had packed the boxes too insecurely on our roof rack.  My friend M, a local friend with theological training, came along to share the good news.  After about 8 episodes of boxes falling off along the bumpy ride, we finally found a way to secure them effectively.  We had 19 of these big boxes full of about 10-15 little shoe boxes each.

When we arrived in the market of this town of 10,000, we asked where the local school (our designated meeting place) was.  The folks in the market greeted us warmly and knew we were coming.  They directed us to the town school where literally hundreds of children were waiting for us.  I guess it was pretty obvious who we were.  The traditional chief had sent his attendants through the town to collect names of children the day before.  And since we had left the paved road two hours before, we had passed one parked truck and no moving cars - which is to say, although you might see the occasional motorcycles up here, some white folks and a car were not normal in this town.  The kids were excited to see us arrive.

The traditional chief with his attendants greeted me warmly, and one of the attendants knew me from his previous visits to G.  Even a village at this distance has many people who make the trip down to our hospital.

Before starting the distribution, we met with him and his team in order to lay out a plan to make the distribution as organized as possible.  Fortunately, he and his team had already made a list of 200 names of children.  We had a about 300 shoe box gifts, and there were many more than 300 kids present, so we knew the potential for chaos was substantial.

We explained that we would like to share a brief exposition of the Word before the gift-giving, and they graciously agreed to that.  OCC boxes are meant to go to children who have never received a box before and have probably never heard the good news, and a presentation of the good news is meant to accompany the gift.  Some  people also asked for some of the literature we had brought.

We first gathered the kids and adults in a classroom.

Where M shared about God's love for children and a brief presentation of the good news.

Eventually, it was too hot and noisy inside, so we moved the crowd outside, and M made use of a small megaphone we had found in the hospital vehicle. 

After that, we were ready to begin the distribution.  The chief's attendents kept the crowds in line

The chief had a good organizational system.  The kids were called up in groups of ten.

Then our Ir would give all ten a pamphlet.  She worked on her local language, telling them that God loved them.  Going through scores of kids this way took a couple hours, so she tired of this job and others took over after a while.

After a group of ten was ready, they were ushered into the school room where we and the other local coordinators gave them a shoe box based on their gender and age.

Once kids had their gift they skipped along home.

We had plenty of opportunities to hang out as kids waited for their turn.  They crowded around Ir at times wanting their photo taken.  She took it all in stride.  She had been really excited to go on this adventure with Daddy.

A doctor visiting from the States for a month came along and helped us out.

Things got a bit chaotic towards the end after we had run through the list of 200 names that had been collected in advance.    

We simply didn't have enough gifts for all the kids.  But we could honestly say we had run out of gifts (and we had packed our off-road vehicle to the gills).  When we pulled away, scores of kids ran along our car waving and cheering.