Each year Foothills has had the privilege of working with Operation Christmas Child (OOC). This great organization has blessed so many lives, everything from giving them hope in desperate situations at orphanages to receiving a GIFT for the first time from someone.
Kerry Williams, who leads our Operation Christmas Child effort (as well as acting as the local rep. for OCC on this side of the valley) has already shared 2 amazing stories with us and in this post we’d like to share Princess Crown and A Giving Church.
Princess Crown
Jesse Fuller, who was in our youth ministry years ago sent out a box for OCC, and at the last minute, decided to put a princess crown in the box. A few months later, she received a letter from a young girl named Stuti who told her that she had begged her parents for a crown, but couldn’t afford it. She sent Jesse a picture of her wearing the crown and they became pen pals. They are now friends on Facebook and Stuti is thinking about coming out here from college in two years. Stuti is from Nepal.
A Giving Church
Last year, an India culture church, not only brought us over 80 boxes from their sweet church they also wrote a check for each child for their boxes to take the discipleship course. It is offered free to the kids but incurs a cost of course for OCC. Anyway, they were the sweetest folks and I was visiting with them and then went back to check on something. When I came back into the large room of the student building where we were packing large orders, the 3 representatives, including the pastor and his wife were encircling the boxes and praying over them. It was such a wonderful thing to be able to witness!
More About Operation Christmas Child
I have about 15 volunteers who help in one capacity or another at our church. Each year, some folks just drop off bags of crayons, toys, toiletry items, etc and don’t pack a box. I gather all these things together and have extra empty boxes on hand and each year God sees that these are filled to the last items. It’s all in His hands and He does a wonderful job of making sure everything works out perfectly.
Most people can’t afford to go on a mission trip across the world, but they can afford to be a missionary in a box, and spread the gospel with a simple gift in honor of THE CHRISTMAS CHILD, Jesus. God knows where each box is going and what impact it is going to have. We have to trust it to His perfect will.