Basic HTML Version
Good News - Broward Edition
12 November 2013
Terry Morrow
Good News
This Christmas will you and
your family accept the gift God is
waiting to provide? Unlike the
commercialized Christmas gifts
our world tells us are expected,
the gift God is hoping to give you
does not need batteries. It will not
expire, and it won’t deplete your
bank account. Actually, it will fill
your account – the one that
matters most.
“What is this gift,” you ask? It
is the gift of unconditional love, of
hope,
of
generosity,
of
selflessness…given to your sister
or brother living in a developing
country. When God invites us to
step forward, he creates the path
and equips us for the task.
Operation Christmas Child
(OCC) is that path.
One life touched forever
OCC is the world’s largest
children’s project. In its 21st year,
OCC distributed more than 100
million shoeboxes to more than
130 countries. Yuri Lopez is one
child in that 100 million whose
life was changed through OCC.
Yuri’s parents abandoned her and
her twin sister when they were
just babies. At the age of 2, she
was separated from her sister and
other siblings and placed in a
Honduran orphanage where she
stayed until she was 16.
When Yuri was 6, she
received an OCC shoebox for the
first time. She shares, “The items
in the shoebox gift that I most
remember were a letter and
photo from the girl who packed
my shoebox. I remember thinking
that, even though there were 550
kids around me and there were
not a lot of people who cared for
me, there was someone far away,
in a different place that cared
enough without even knowing
me or my story. The letter was the
most important part of the box. I
couldn’t believe that a little girl, far
away, who doesn’t know me,
would take the time to give me a
present. Through the shoebox,
this little girl showed me the way
God loves me, and that there is
hope. During the Operation
Christmas
Child
shoebox
distribution, the volunteers talked
to us about God and we said a
prayer, then we all counted to
three and opened our boxes. It
was amazing to see so many gifts
in my box just for me!” Since that
day, Yuri has come a long way…
literally. Her love for school,
go to
NEXT PAGE
LOCAL
Operation Christmas Child: God’s Gift to You