This article is from Samaritan's Purse at
http://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/articles/god_always_finds_a_way/
God Always Finds a Way
Operation Christmas Child aids education, opens doors for evangelism, and helps combat human trafficking in Nepal
More than 80 excited school children in Shikhorbeshi, Nepal, sat on
the ground in neat rows with gift-filled shoe boxes in their laps,
anxiously waiting for the signal to open the lids.
“One! Two! Three! Open!” shouted Operation Christmas Child coordinator Suren Rasaily.
A chorus of laughter and excitement quickly filled the schoolyard as the
children examined the treasures inside their boxes. The boys and girls
hugged the stuffed animals and dolls, marveled at the toys, and prized
the pencils, pens, and notebooks they found.
“I like the pencils and the notebooks,” said Resman, an 11-year-old girl. “I will use them in school and to do homework.”
Sadly, extreme poverty forces many children in Shikhorbeshi and other remote mountain villages to drop out of school.
“This distribution is a great encouragement for the children to come to
school,” said a teacher named Pushkar. “Many of the parents are unable
to provide even basic school supplies. I thank Operation Christmas Child
for coming. This is important.”
The children were also intrigued by The Greatest Gift of All, the colorful Gospel booklets that were offered with the boxes.
Child after child said that they were anxious to take their shoe boxes
home, share the gifts with brothers and sisters, and read The Greatest
Gift of All to the family.
“I will share my gifts with my sister, Phool Maya, and read the book to her,” said Asish, an 8-year-old boy.
A 9-year-old girl named Tulkumari set her box aside and thumbed through
the booklet, looking at the illustrations. “My mother and father can’t
read,” she said. “I am the only one. I will read the story to them.”
More than 80 percent of the people in Nepal are Hindus, and few in the
mountain villages have ever heard the Gospel. When excited children come
home with gift boxes and Gospel booklets in their hands, it provides a
way for the Good News to reach the unreached for the first time. It also
opens doors for Nepali pastors to do follow-up ministry.
As shoe box distributions gain a foothold for the Gospel, local pastors
are using the message of God’s love to help the local people take a
stand against an evil that has brought heartbreak and shame to villages
across the region—human trafficking.
Traffickers from Kathmandu exploit impoverished villagers, promising
jobs to young men and even offering proposals of marriage to
unsuspecting girls and their parents. Tragically, the boys end up doing
forced labor in factories and on construction crews, and the girls are
whisked away to brothels in Nepal or India and are never seen again.
“Human trafficking is a curse that brings shame upon the people,” Suren
Rasaily said. “But I believe that this curse can be broken by the Gospel
of Jesus Christ.”
Shivaram is a man who runs a rustic travelers’ inn at the top end of the rocky, dirt road that runs through Shikhorbeshi.
“Trafficking is a serious problem here,” he said. “Many young girls have
been trafficked from this village, but none of them have ever
returned.”
One cold winter night, a young couple knocked on Shivaram’s door,
looking for a place to stay. The man said that they were newly married
and on their way to Kathmandu, but Shivaram was suspicious. He helped
the couple settle into a small room in an upstairs loft and then went to
the local police.
“Finally, the girl told the whole story and said that they were not
married,” Shivaram said. “They arrested the man, who was a trafficker,
and sent the girl back home.”
Shivaram was thankful that he was able to save a young girl from a lifetime of misery.
“I don’t fear the traffickers,” he said.” If it happens again, I will
see it as my duty and responsibility to inform the police. I have faith
and hope that trafficking can be stopped. Operation Christmas Child is
encouraging kids through the gift boxes to go to school. I believe that
in the days to come, it will help make more people literate and help
reduce trafficking in these places.”
In the village schoolyard, the children were repacking their gift boxes
to prepare for the long walk home. Some had to cross over rivers on
foot-bridges and follow steep trails, high into the mountains, but they
were anxious to get home to share their gifts with their families and
read a story to them about a man named Jesus.
“It’s amazing what God can do with something as simple as a gift-filled
shoe box,” Suren Rasaily said. “When I pray about what can be done to
combat trafficking in the area, I’m reminded of the Bible verse that
says, ‘God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong’ (1
Corinthians 1:27b, NIV). God always finds a way.”
Find out how to impact the live of a child through Operation Christmas Child.
“When
we started distributing shoe boxes in the area, it gave me an
opportunity to meet the children’s parents and develop relationships,”
he said. “That’s how our church began to grow. Now we have almost 300
members. When we distribute shoe boxes and talk with people about the
Word of God, they listen.” 
