Southwest Louisiana volunteers and donors put together 19,451 Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes in 2023. Some of them gathered at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church in Lake Charles earlier this month to celebrate the demonstration of God’s love in this tangible way — and plan for touching even more lives in 2024.

Evelyne Fontenot brought the idea to her church, Open Door Biker Church in Sulphur, for the first time last year, excited about the opportunity to give children gifts they may have never had.

“Seeing their faces as they opened the gifts was priceless,” Fontenot said. (Seeing a video with some of the children’s reaction to the gifts is part of the celebration.) “But even better is knowing that we’re using these small gifts to tell these children about Jesus, our Savior and we’re helping start churches in areas where they are needed.”

Sometimes the shoebox ministry changes lives here.

Volunteer Sharlin Bailey, First Baptist Church of Gillis relayed a story about a busy mom reluctant to take on yet another project, the task of filling a shoebox after her middle-school aged son became involved.

“When she finally found time between chauffeuring and other mom duties, she told him brusquely to get in the car, we’re going to Walmart. When they got there, she told her son to pick out the kinds of things he would want. Her son started going up and down the aisles, taking the assignment seriously, and they ended up spending a couple of hours together and had a great time. Bailey told the mom and son about a lighted yo-yo that was received in a shoe box and how that yo-yo and learning about the love of Jesus changed a child’s  life in Ghana.

“The mother had tears in her eyes,” Bailey said.

Over the past 30 years, the Lord has used Samaritan’s Purse to deliver more than 220 million shoebox gifts. This year, 11.3 million shoe boxes were packed. 5.1 million children participated in the Great Journey and 2.9 million decisions were made for Christ.