As many of you are familiar with Samaritans Purse/Operation Christmas (organization that usually is popular or well known during Christmas, when your church ask for shoebox donations) a Tuk Tuk full of shoeboxes showed up last week. I was blown away at first with the thought of what was the chance that we are at this orphanage in the middle of no where Cambodia, when they receive shoeboxes for their children and community children.
It was Christmas in February and we were blessed to be part of it. As usual we were asked last minute if we could lead a game and maybe teach them a song. So of course we played duck duck goose and musical chairs, followed by the song Jesus Loves Me, which many of the English Students had been learning already. It was a precious sight to see 30-40 kids sing Jesus Loves Me right before they opened up their shoeboxes.
Then like Christmas morning came…all the kids started opening up their shoebox assorted gifts. Immediately, many kids started playing and putting on their new shirts, hats, etc. It was so cool to see how excited they would get over a stocking hat and put it on right away despite the extreme heat.
Throughout this month God has just continued to show me the blessings he provides even if it is small as a shoebox.
PS: One thing that I learned from being on the other end of this experience, is that although the shoeboxes are labeled as boy and girl, it is in English. Therefore, they couldn’t read it and were about to pass out boxes incorrectly before we stepped in and let them know. So I would recommend buying unisex items in the future, but this is just based on my one experience and may not be the case usually.
But I encourage ya’ll to keep on sending shoeboxes because it truly does make it to God’s children all the way across the world!
