Michael Falahat said when he was growing up in Jordan, he looked forward to Operation Christmas Child season all year long.
“We would get the shoeboxes and see what was in them and play with them, and it was so exciting seeing what everybody got,” he said.
OCC has sent more than 220 million shoeboxes filled with toys, school supplies and hygiene products to children all over the world since the effort started in 1993. Volunteers also follow up with discipleship for the shoebox recipients.
‘Very dear to my heart’
The small Baptist church in Jordan where Falahat received his boxes always gave them to the children alongside the gospel message, he said.
“As a child, this is probably the main way I felt in a practical way that God loves me,” Falahat said.
He said now as an adult living in the U.S., “this ministry is very dear to my heart.”
“When my first child was born, I made a promise that I wanted to be involved in helping other kids,” said Falahat, a member of Door Creek Church in Madison, Wisconsin. “We do this as a family. It’s been such a blessing; it’s been good for the kids to see that there’s more to life. And I think it’s one of the most practical ways to share the gospel with children.”
His family packed 50 boxes this year to be sent to children around the world.
Praying for the recipients
Falahat’s mother, Sana Haddad, also participated, and her church — First Baptist Church Hoover — served as one of Alabama’s 128 OCC drop-off locations during National Collection Week, which ended yesterday (Nov. 25). The church packed shoeboxes and received others’ boxes for a total of 677.
More than 1,800 additional boxes headed to the distribution center in Atlanta from the drop-off site at Clarke Baptist Association, which posted on Facebook that the boxes were prayed over “but we hope you will continue to PRAY that each gift will get into the hands of the child who He has planned to receive it, along with the families who will learn of the saving grace of Jesus Christ.”
Across the state, hundreds more participated in packing and collecting boxes. In 2023, churches and individuals in 11 countries packed more than 11.3 million shoeboxes.
For more information, visit samaritanspurse.org/operation-christmas-child.
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