300,000 smiles as your shoe boxes are opened!!
We are thrilled to report that through the joint efforts of thousands of individuals, 303,921 children in the Asia Pacific region received an Operation Christmas Child shoe box from Australia and New Zealand!
“This is so cool!” said Timothy as he opened his shoe box and excitedly showed his mother all the gifts inside. “I won’t have to buy many school materials now because I got some in my box!”
Timothy’s mother, like many others in Fiji, is facing increasing hardship. She was extremely grateful to see each of her five children given a shoe box from an unknown friend in Australia or New Zealand.
‘I want to say thank you to God for this present. And thank you to the person who sent it without knowing who would get it. I love it!’ – Timothy
“God has taken away some of the burden of parents by providing Christmas gifts for their children through these boxes,” said the High Chief of one Indian community in Fiji. “There were tears of happiness not only among the children, but also among the adults.”
“I want to say thank you to God for this present,” said Timothy. “And thank you to the person who sent it without knowing who would get it. I love it!”
Pastor Bill Page shared about the distribution at his church in Papua New Guinea. “It was amazing!” said Pastor Bill. “Our team gave out 7,600 shoe boxes. We also distributed boxes to the squatter settlements and villages.
“We were blessed to have Steve Grace, the Gospel singer who grew up in Papua New Guinea, with us while we distributed the boxes. The children were delighted to hear Steve’s songs.”
In Cambodia, a further 66,246 boxes were distributed. “There was an incredible sense of excitement on the day of the distribution,” described Phary, a local Sunday school teacher.
“When the shoe boxes came out and the children realised the gifts were especially for them, there was pandemonium!”
Stama was one of the children who received a gift. “I like the letter they wrote to me,” she said. “They said they prayed for me. I feel very happy and proud because we never get presents – but today we did!”
Later, Phary asked her students how they enjoyed their day. “We will remember today for a very long time,” they said.
“The gifts were a reminder that people around the world love them,” said Sok Bunthen, Assistant Pastor at God’s Family Church in Phnom Penh. “We hope that through these gifts the children will come to know the love of Jesus and the true meaning of Christmas.”
On behalf of children like Timothy and Stama, thank you for your support of Operation Christmas Child this year.
Whether you filled a shoe box with gifts, gave an additional gift to help our partners with the extra in country costs (click here for whole story), prayed for the project or volunteered to get the boxes ready for delivery - thank you!
See also: Generous Donors Assist Local Partners to Deliver OCC Shoe Boxes
For video footage from the first 2008 shoe box distributions in Cambodia view the new Turn on the Tap video (after 4mins 34seconds)
March 5th, 2009 at 2:33 am
Well done Samaritans Purse. Such a simple gesture bringing so much joy. We are proud to be involved with Operation Christmas Child and my children and I look forward to making up our boxes again this year.
March 8th, 2009 at 10:19 pm
This is just the very best way I know to celebrate Christmas. I get so much joy from filling these boxes and trying to imagine the faces on these beautiful children as they open them. Already I am collecting goodies for this years boxes.
I would love to be one of the people who hand these boxes out. How do you become one? Love to all the crew and God bless you all. GABI
March 9th, 2009 at 4:56 pm
WOW, what a fantastic effort! Seeing the smiles of all those children in the photo’s is priceless. We only had a short time frame to get the boxes together so imagine what we can do this year with more time!
March 10th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
I was wondering if I could be a collector of these Christmas boxes for you. I tell my friends and hardly any of them know of it. I was thinking if I had lots of the pamphlets I could distribute to all my friends and family and also my daughters school, I am sure I could collect lots more Christmas boxes for these gorgeous children.
March 12th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
Gabi,
95% of the boxes are distributed by our local overseas partners. Every year we host a few Discovery Trips where key volunteers, who have been closely involved in promoting and / or processing the shoe boxes for at least 2 years can apply to join a team.
If you are interested in volunteering please call us on 1800 684 300.