Fear and Trembling

The week before Thanksgiving, thousands of people from across seven countries are turning empty shoeboxes into gifts—filled with toys, school supplies and hygiene items—for children living in poverty overseas. Through Operation Christmas Child, a project of international relief organization Samaritan’s Purse, volunteers are rallying with hopes of contributing shoebox gifts toward the 2016 global goal of reaching 12 million children in over 100 countries. A list of drop-off locations and detailed information can be found at samaritanspurse.org/occ . More information can also be found at Facebook (facebook.com/OCCshoeboxes), Twitter (@OCC_shoeboxes), and Instagram (@operationchristmaschild). Operation Christmas Child is a project of Samaritan’s Purse, an international Christian relief and evangelism organization headed by Franklin Graham. The mission of Operation Christmas Child is to demonstrate God’s love in a tangible way to children in need around the world, and together...

It's that time of year again.  Time to participate in the world’s largest Christmas project of its kind: Operation Christmas Child . The annual Samaritan’s Purse project is a favorite of many families, churches and groups.  They spread joy to millions of children around the world by filling shoeboxes with a “Wow!” item—like a doll or soccer ball—other fun toys, school supplies, hygiene items and notes of encouragement. I had the great privilege of going to Lima, Peru, in 2008 to help hand out some of those shoeboxes to children in need through local churches.  To read my story, follow this link  and read several posts from my trip.  It was an unforgettable experience. Operation Christmas Child is a project of Samaritan’s Purse, an international Christian relief and evangelism organization headed by Franklin Graham . Since 1993, Operation Christmas Child has delivered gift-filled shoeboxes to more than 124 million children in more than 150 countries a...

I just stumbled on a Face Book application that allows a person to ‘donate’ his or her birthday to a cause in order to raise money. I ‘took the plunge,’ as my birth date is October 22. I would like to support Operation Christmas Child . I went on a trip to Lima, Peru , last year to help distribute shoebox gifts to children. You can read my stories from the trip by clicking the label “Operation Christmas Child” to the right in the sidebar. Please take the chance to pack a shoebox gift for National Collection Week this year, November 16-23. Drop off locations can be found by entering your zip code here. Also, a $7 donation will pay the shipping on someone else’s shoebox, and we get several boxes each year at our collection center that need the ‘scholarship.’ You can donate by following the instructions at the Face Book Causes link here  or by following the appropriate links here . Then children were brought to [Jesus] that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The discipl...

I am back in Tennessee at my home, and my wife and daughter have never looked prettier. I have read back over my posts while in Peru, corrected the spelling errors as best I can, and am working on some future posts. Click the label at left or below for Operation Christmas Child to find all of them. I also forwarded some interview questions to my roommate, Evans, the pastor from Kenya. He has promised to do a blog interview with me that I will publish as soon as possible. Thank you to those from my church and community who prayed for our team on our journeys.

I will get on the "red eye" flight to Atlanta in a few hours. This is my last post from Peru. I am still sorting through all of the week’s experiences. The simple fact is that I have not yet cried enough tears to be able to tell the stories right. I am wonderfully heartbroken. I don’t expect everyone to understand that, but it´s the only way I can find to express my emotions. It is wonderful to be a part of the things that have happened here this week. I have been blessed to make a difference in some children’s lives. Operation Christmas Child (OCC) sent 200,000 boxes to Peru this year, and I was glad to play a small part in that effort. But I also know that there are over 8.7 million children under the age of 15 in Peru. OCC only distributed boxes to 2.2% of these children. There is so much more to do. I have seen the churches we worked with to distribute boxes. I have seen the children. I have learned of their plight. I will never be the same. I will get ready to communica...

For a long time Operation Christmas Child (OCC) has been known for making miles and miles of smiles. I know now from personal experience just how bright and beautiful those smiles are. The children of Peru smile with a brilliance and beauty that stands out in stark contrast to their situations. Many are from broken homes. Sometimes when a couple divorces in Peru the father feels no obligation to the children of the marriage. The mother will often go on to marry another, and she then shuns the children herself. These children can end up on the street, taking care of themselves. Some sniff a type of glue used to join soles to the bottom of shoes. They become addicted and often do permanent damage to themselves. (For more information on the street children, see here , here and here .) Many of the children we saw were from the areas outside Lima. Families build homes as money becomes available, so they live in unfinished houses. The areas outside Lima are technically desert. The terrain i...

As with the last few posts, I am still in Lima, Peru, with an Operation Christmas Child (OCC)team. I had a wonderful opportunity today as we passed out shoeboxes. A pastor had asked someone from our group to share with the children how the boxes came to them from America. This is the substance of what I said: Good afternoon. My name is Juan. This is how a box comes to you. A family buys gifts. They do their best to buy gifts and toys that will make you happy. They want to show Christ's love. They bring their gifts to our church in the U. S. A truck carries them from our church to a place where they are cared for. A boat carries them to your country. And Christ's church gives them to you. We give the boxes to show the love of Christ. We want you to know the love of God, the Friendship of Jesus Christ in your hearts, and the power of the Holy Spirit in your lives. Thank you for the opportunity to give to you. I didn't say anything that profound, but I was overwhelmed by the o...

I'm still on a short-term missions trip with Operation Christmas Child in Lema, Peru , to help deliver gift-filled shoeboxes to children. I meet my roommate for the week last night, and I had the chance to talk to him a little before exhaustion got the best of me. His name is Evans Sabwami, and he is from Kenya. His stories of growing up in Kenya held my attention. It is not often that you meet someone who improvised with so much ingenuity in a difficult circumstance. Please be in prayer for Kenya . Evans informed me of the violence and political unrest sweeping through his homeland. (See here and here .) It's a scary world we live in. Evans is a pastor at a Vinyard church in New York. May God empower Evans´ ministry and help him to honor the gospel message. This was our first day to hand out shoeboxes. I was overwhelmed. I had been warned that this is often the case, but I had no idea. Our first stop was Hogar de Cristo Orphanage in the Cercado area of Lima. This orphanage ...

This is the first day of my trip with Operation Christmas Child (OCC) to Peru. The plane flight was fun. I had the chance to meet a missionary from Peru named Keith. He ministers to the Quechua to the northeast of Lima. He is a friendly and helpful person who showed me the way through immigration and customs at the airport. He need our prayers. I was able to put him in touch with some of the leadership of OCC for a possible distribution of shoeboxes in his area of ministry. For part of the flight I sat next to Mary Dameron. She is a long term spokeswoman for OCC with a strong (!) personality. I hope to be able to post more of her stories when I have more time. Please say a prayer. We go on our first trip to distribute gift0filled shoeboxes in a few minutes.

I leave for Lima, Peru, this coming Monday for a short-term missions trip with Operation Christmas Child (OCC). OCC is a ministry of Samaritan’s Purse, an international relief ministry headed by Franklin Graham. OCC will distribute over 7,000,000 gift-filed shoeboxes this year to children in over 90 countries. In preparation for this trip, I was asked by OCC in an e-mail note, “Why are you excited about going on this distribution?” I’d like to share my answer. I am excited about going because of the smiles. I'll never forget the first time I ever saw a picture of a bunch of kids gathered around opening shoeboxes. Their smiles touched my heart. You can't help but want to make a kid smile. I am also excited about supporting the local churches and distribution teams in Peru. I want to see those smiles through all of eternity, and the only way to do that is to help share the good news about what Christ has done to win our salvation for us in His life and suffering. I want to shar...

“Nothing less than Christ will satisfy, and when you find him, nothing more could be desired.” – Stephen Charnock I have a wonderful opportunity at the first of next month. I am going to Lima, Peru, with Operation Christmas Child to help give shoeboxes to children. Samaritan’s Purse did some relief work here after an 8.0 magnitude earthquake. Getting to go is a real honor. Part of taking the honor seriously is to do some spiritual soul-searching before I leave. Is there anything in my life I desire more than I do Christ? Am I satisfied that my relationship with God depends on Him or am I striving to earn peace with God on my own? Am I really growing in my walk with Christ? Am I sinning less, particularly in those areas where I struggle (anger, worry, lust, etc.)? Am I searching for areas of my sin that have escaped my awareness to this point? What are my motives for this trip? Is it just a vacation in disguise? Am I expecting to “save the world” in my American grandiosity? Will I be...

It has been a while since I posted. This week has been National Collection Week for Operation Christmas Child, the shoebox ministry of Samaritan’s Purse. I am the Area Coordinator for our part of Tennessee, and I have been spending allot of time organizing and helping at our Collection Center. If you have not heard of Samaritan’s Purse or OCC please follow the links embedded in this sentence to find out more. It’s a ministry that has worldwide impact . OCC supplied gift-filed shoeboxes to over 7.5 million children in over 90 countries last year, and I pray we do more this year. Follow this link to volunteer ; it will change your life!