Watch this amazing video and read the story of what God is doing through Operation Christmas Child, through a simple shoebox, to change a child's life, and a whole community, in Papua New Guinea.
The Message Behind the Gift
An Operation Christmas Child shoe box touches a father’s heart and helps transform a community
Tena Kemoti’s heart sank as he watched the old pickup truck carrying
his wife and 5-year-old daughter disappear among the trees on its way to
a hospital in Port Moresby, nearly two hours away. Christian had been sick for days, but the rural village of Kuni was miles away from medical care. Tena and his wife, Lucy, were grateful when a visiting pastor named Magi insisted on taking their daughter to the hospital.
Tena worried and waited for several days until his wife and daughter returned. He was relieved to see that Christian was well again, and Lucy couldn’t stop talking about the wonderful people they had met.
Women
from Pastor Magi’s church had cared for Christian and Lucy, showering
them with the love of Jesus. They gave Christian an Operation Christmas
Child shoe box, explaining that it was an expression of God’s gift of
eternal life that can be received through faith in His Son, Jesus
Christ. Tena listened intently as his wife told him about their adventure, and the message of the shoe box gift touched his heart.
“When I saw the things in that shoe box, it really blessed me,” he said. “It started me thinking and I decided to give my life to God. It opened my mind to come to know Jesus Christ.”
Tena not only gave his life to Christ, but felt called to lead others to Jesus. He became the pastor of the Foursquare Church in Kuni.
When he began leading the church it had about 150 members. Remembering the powerful effect that the Operation Christmas Child gift box had on his life, Tena helped organize local distributions.
“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.” The new church had a powerful effect on the rural community. Kuni had a reputation for being a place where criminals went to hide from the police. No one there felt safe.
But as the church grew, people got to know their neighbors and began to look out for each other. Together, they found courage to let criminals in the area know that they were not welcome and worked with the police to clean up the community.
“Now, people can move around freely here and not be afraid,” Tena said. “Our church brought people together. We never had a church like this before.”
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