Many “Operation
Christmas Child” events were held around the state of Tlaxcala this month! (“Operation
Christmas Child” is an international children´s evangelism project organized by
Samaritan´s Purse) Paco and I, along
with the rest of our Samaritan´s Purse team in
Tlaxcala, had the joy of observing
these events.
It was
amazing to see whole churches actively serving the children of their
communities and sharing the Gospel! Some
churches had small events, for
30 children, while others planned large events,
for 350 children! Some did crafts,
others did games, others did children´s worship songs, but all shared the love
of Jesus Christ for the children and prayed with them. At the end of the events, each child would
receive his Christmas Shoebox
of gifts as a visible symbol of God´s loving care
for them.
Many of the
children live in poverty, and this is the only gift they receive at Christmas
time. One 9-yr-old boy touched Paco´s
heart: he had no socks
or shoelaces (though it was cold out!), and he said he
didn´t know how to read. Paco read the Gospel booklet with him and gave him his
shoebox gift. He was overjoyed!
An 11-year-old
boy at another
event received a toolkit in his shoebox. As Paco explained the
name and function of each tool to the excited child, including the “carpenter´s
pencil”, the boy declared: “Then, I am going to be a carpenter!” This simple shoebox gave him vision for his
future!
After one
event, an elderly lady, Estelita, approached us with her four
grandchildren,
not only to thank us for the gifts but for the message of salvation. She said she had resisted turning to God her
whole life, but that day recognized that she needed Jesus. She planned on joining the church with all
her grandchildren to learn more! We were
left open-mouthed at
such an obvious testimony of God´s work through these
events!
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