Have you ever filled one of those red and green shoeboxes with toys and hygiene products, taped a label for a boy or a girl to the top of it, and handed it into a collection site around the holidays? Have you wondered what the child looks like that would end up receiving your gift? Have you ever wondered the eternal impact that your shoebox gift would have on that child? Approximately 11+ million shoeboxes from around the world went out to 11+ million children in 160+ countries this year. There are so many numbers and statistics surrounding these charity programs.
This year on the World Race, I got to not only see stuffed Samaritan’s Purse shoeboxes on the other side of the world in Thailand and hand them to police officers at a police station to hand out to the community, but I got to meet and befriend a 20something that had been touched by Operation Christmas Child.
His name is Bujan.
Bujan is from Kosova, a country that has not yet reached its 10th birthday. The country is made up of 96% people claiming Islam as their religion. However, most Muslims in Kosova are nominal and only identify themselves with the religion because of family background or their social and cultural environment.
Bujan and his best friend Rita grew up in Muslim families and were very curious kids. They liked to do things that other kids weren’t interested in, like going to the mosque and learning the Arabic alphabet. One day, in a conversation with the imam (a leader at the mosque) about their favorite hobbies, the imam said that them playing instruments was a sin before their god.
But Bujan and Rita asked themselves, if the Creator of the universe gave them musical talent, how come the Islam god wouldn’t want them to use those talents?
This curiosity about the world and the creator was God’s sovereign way of opening their hearts to the truth about His Son, Jesus Christ. Because soon after that, Rita invited Bujan somewhere that was handing out shoeboxes as gifts to kids. Little did they know that this place was a church.
When they walked in, Bujan could only describe it as “magical.” Children were dancing and singing to God. It wasn’t forbidden! It wasn’t a sin here to use their musical and creative talents. They both heard about the man named Jesus for the very first time in that place and Bujan described his heart and ears were wide open to hear everything that the pastor was saying.
When he went home, Bujan found a booklet in the shoebox titled “Libri yt i shpresës” or “Your book of hope” in Albanian. He went through the booklet so fast because he was so hungry to learn more about Jesus! How could he know Him? He could he be in a relationship with Him like the pastor was talking about?
At 10 years old, Bujan knelt by the side of his bed like the picture in the booklet showed, and prayed the salvation prayer for the first time. But every night after that he did the same thing! Every night before bed he would ask Jesus to be his best friend, not knowing he only needed to confess with his mouth just one time to be saved: once and for all.
This led Bujan and his best friend Rita to go to children’s meetings at the church. All the children that were at those first children’s meetings eventually grew up and left the church. But not Bujan and Rita. Eleven years later, they are co-workers working at the same church they first entered in 2006 and in the same children’s ministry that passed out Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes to them back in 2006. They had no idea at 10 years old that their lives would be forever changed by receiving a small shoebox that held the best gift of all: knowing Jesus Christ as their best friend, their Savior.
