Operation Christmas Child Talibe Style

Saturday was a blast! It was hot and it was dusty, but it was a blast. 200+ street boys came to collect their Christmas Child boxes at the Phare.
A team from Forest Hill Church in Charlotte, NC helped distribute the boxes along with several other helpers from the missionary community, as well as
a large group of students from Dakar Academy.

This was the first time I've been involved in the giving side of Operation Christmas Child. Like so many of you, our family has put together boxes, but never had the privilege of watching them open them.
It was a thrill to be there to see the kids little faces light up as they received their gifts. They were SO excited.



They had to be stopped at the entrance to the Phare and then lead in groups of about 5 by a helper to a place on the basketball court. Sitting patiently
is no small challenge for any kid, especially when presents are involved, and these boys were no different.
However, with the aid of the helpers we were able to keep the kids calm and composed until their boxes arrived.
That was ANOTHER exercise in patience. They couldn't open their boxes until Jane said they could, so even though the boxes were in hand, they weren't allowed
to open them. Talk about excruciating!!
It was so funny to see how they tried to peek by tearing a small corner or prying open the tape to get just a look.




Finally, when all the kids got their boxes Jane said "OK, open them up" and off they went. There was ripping and tearing and all sorts of glee.
Part of the job of the helpers was to go around and explain to the kids what was what in the boxes. These are kids from villages deep in the bush of Africa.
They have no idea what a pez dispenser is (do any of us really?). Calculators? Huh? Erasers..candy maybe? So we were going around telling kids "get that out of your mouth" and "this is what you do with this hairband not a necklace". Oh, yes. That brings me to another aspect of the day. As I mentioned these were BOYS that were receiving the boxes, but unfortunately not all of the boxes were boy boxes. Lots of them were girls.





Better to have something to open than nothing, right? We witnessed many a kid walking around with Dora the Explorer pink socks or hats. One kid had fancy plastic rings on every finger. They were sweetly oblivious to it all and it tugged at my heart strings a bit.
The big hit items of the day were: hats, socks, gloves, t-shirts and balls. Pencils..hmmmm not so much. Paper was a definite FLOP. We picked up so many left over
paperpads. We tried to spark their interest by making paper airplanes out of them, but that lasted for 2 seconds and then they were on to the next thing.
These kids were STOKED (totally 80's word for the day) about getting something..anything. I mean, it was utopia for them at that moment of ripping open the package. Then after about 10, 15 minutes the luster seemed to wear off just a bit. I thought about that as I was picking up discarded leftovers. That's how it is with "stuff". It makes its entrances in a big, beautiful, shiny way and then it gets old . Then I thought about the people behind the stuff. The families that put the boxes together. I know when we did it was a truly an expression of love and joy to be able to give. We knew that maybe what we gave might not fit or whatever, but there was always that hope that it would somehow communicate love. People always
talk about the sacrificial love of Jesus cause that was the big one, but there was also all sorts of smaller moments recorded of love that He gave. A healing touch, a loving word, a look of recognition to cast outs of society. These boys fit into that category. Most people don't bother to even look at them in the eye when they are at their car window asking for money for their teachers. Jane explained to them very carefully before she let them open the gifts the motivation behind the gifts. It was acts of love from people who serve Jesus.
If you've never put together a box, you would be blessed by it!