Day 3: Operation Christmas Child Shoe Box Distribution

Figure 1 Houses by the river.

Hello everyone! I want to thank you for your encouraging words and prayers as we are ministering here in the DR. Yesterday was another AWESOME day. In the morning, we traveled to a daycare center in a very poor area. In the picture (Figure 1), you can see the houses by the river where many of the children live. One of our translators, Shayla, explained to me that when the river rises, the families deal with extreme flooding in their homes. The more time I spend with the children of this country, the more the Lord breaks my heart for them.

For lunch, we went to the food court of the largest mall in the country (the size of most US malls) where we ate empanadas. Back on the bus, the translators asked how we say empanadas in English. Well, there is no literal translation, so we said Hot Pockets, little packages of microwavable goodness (empanadas are much better).

Our second distribution was about 30 minutes outside of Santo Domingo, a community of Dominicans and displaced Haitians living in extreme poverty. We distributed the shoe boxes at a local church where children were packed in wall to wall in a room about 90 degrees. We handed out the Greatest Gift of All books first, which shares the message of the gospel in their own language. Check out the pictures on flickr from the trip so far.

We had another traditional Dominican meal for dinner when the leader of the National Leadership Team shared about the OCC discipleship program. As a supporter of Operation Christmas Child, I wasn’t even aware of the discipleship process each National Leadership Team uses to help local pastors follow up with children who receive shoe boxes. Local pastors, Sunday School teachers, and missionaries are trained to teach the 10 lesson discipleship material to the children. It is so encouraging to hear how this program is being implemented here in the DR. Dominican pastors are being encouraged to “go beyond the shoe box” through this program. Last year in the DR, 33,000 children completed the discipleship program, and they have set a goal of 45,000 for 2009. In the next 5 years, the leadership team hopes for 70% of children receiving shoe boxes to complete the discipleship program. For all of OCC in 63 countries, 3 million children have chosen to follow Christ through this program since it began!

Jose received a shoe box when he was 13 years old, graduated from the discipleship program, became a Christ follower, and is now volunteering with OCC in the Dominican. Watch the video below to hear his story!