Samaritan's Purse (Continued)
Such an amazing Experience!
What an extraordinary afternoon! We drove five or six miles outside Mahajanga city to a small Malagasy village, beautifully picturesque. When I arrived, there were 50 or 60 people gathered. They were all sitting in an open field as volunteers meticulously went through the names and ensured that every child present would receive their Operation Christmas Child shoebox. You could sense their joyful anticipation.
I arrived as a pasty-white, blonde-headed, Canadian, and many of the children we're quite ‘taken’ at the sight of me - which was actually really fun.
A few minutes later, after tickling several of them, their anxiety had gone…some were even chasing after me to tickle me back.
This was joy, as on a Christmas morning, when gathered with one’s family.
The most impressive part of the Samaritans Purse presentation was the very clear Bible teaching. Madame Rose, the Sunday School teacher at Saint Jakoba, walked the children through the material wonderfully prepared by Operation Christmas Child. The teaching included creation, redemption, and new life in Christ. It was refreshingly clear. It was unashamedly Christian. And it was effective. Some of these children have heard the gospel story before, many of them heard it yesterday for the first time.
After the teaching, each child took the time to read their gospel books. It is difficult for us from the West to think of the experience of a child hearing, for the very first time, that God has created them, that God loves them, and that God the Father has sent his beloved Son the Lord Jesus Christ to them, so that they might be forgiven and have the hope of heaven. I struggled to hold back tears at such a glorious sight.
I prayed with the children. I blessed the children. I told the children that I would do all that I could to see to it that a church and a school would be built in their village. And then one by one I presented each child with their shoebox. They waited in anticipation until every child received their gift. Then they opened their gifts – there was such joy!
Amongst the other things, an 11-year-old boy found in his shoe box some fishing hooks and some bobbers.... He asked Tojo, my driver, what the bobbers were, and Tojo very joyously explained that these were for fishing. He went on to share that he and I had gone fishing together using the very same tools and that maybe we would go fishing together. A very small and insignificant gift in a shoe box has opened the opportunity for me and Tojo to take this young 11-year-old fishing… perhaps we will catch 153 fish??
This fall, when you are filling your Samaritans Purse Operation Christmas Child shoebox, know that it is making an extraordinary difference. I have seen firsthand the difference these shoeboxes are making in the lives of the children who receive them. This is much bigger than the toys and items in the box itself. It is the very means whereby these children are learning that they are loved, not only by those who donated the shoe box, but more so, that they are loved by God and that the Lord Jesus wants to be the Lord of their lives.
I am so grateful for the faithful biblical ministry of Billy Graham, his son Franklin Graham, and the international ministry Samaritans Purse.