Operation Christmas Child: Part 4-Makenene

Our third Operation Christmas Child distribution was in Makenene, about four hours by bus away from where we live. The distribution would happen at the end of the Church service. The children who would be getting a gift were from a variety of different smaller villages, not just Makenene, but had traveled to receive their gift.

Our first view of the church in Makenene.

The front of the church.

It was really crowded! Lots of kids were there to receive a gift.

Singing “Read Your Bible, Pray Everyday, and you’ll grow, grow, grow!”

There was a special group of singers!

There was a time of evangelism! 

Waiting to receive the shoeboxes!

I loved handing out the boxes to the little ones!

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Waiting with anticipation and excitement for their turn!

Most of the older girls and boys would curtsy when they received their boxes.

Many of the older boys enjoyed giving me high fives!

SO MUCH JOY!!!! He could hardly contain his excitement when get got his box! 

They all enjoyed looking in the boxes. (The children here also waited until they got home to open their boxes.)

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Headed home! 

We enjoyed a lovely lunch afterwards!

We are grateful for the opportunities that we had. Maybe we will get to go to some more dedications next year! Thank you to all who put together shoeboxes to send to places all around the world! It was truly a blessing to see all of the smiles and excitement!

Blessings,

Teresa 🙂

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Operation Christmas Child: Part 3 -M.E.E.C

The second Operation Christmas Child distribution we were able to attend was located in our quartier (neighborhood). Every day I pass M.E.E.C (Mission de L’eglise Evangelique Camerounaise) Church on my way to the Greenhouse to teach. We were super excited to be able to attend a distribution so close to our home.

This distribution was much smaller than the last one we attended. (If you missed that post you can check it out here.) It is amazing to see God at work in the Churches here in Cameroon.

Below are some of my favorite photos from this distribution.

Prayer Time!

Love this picture of the little girls praying!

Another super cute picture of the little girls during a prayer time!

 

Revealing of the shoeboxes! What excitement! 

Samuel telling about the boxes!

They were so grateful and excited! 

Matthew even got to hand a few out!

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So excited to see what was in his box!

Taking a peek!

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Look at that!!

We even got to see a few of the kids open their boxes!

Everybody enjoyed seeing what others got too!

Looking closely!

Peace!

So many smiles! 

Merci Beaucoup! 

 

Blessings,

Teresa 🙂

Operation Christmas Child: Part 2 – Nkola

At the end of March and the beginning of April, Matthew and I had the opportunity to attend 3 different Operation Christmas Child distributions. We were very thankful to our friend Raymond for the opportunity to attend these dedications. It really was a blessing to see how Operation Christmas Child works here in Cameroon!

The distribution programs included singing, praying, a time of discussing who Jesus was and why he died for us, an invitation to the older children to attend a discipleship class, the revealing of the special gifts, a time of talking about why these gifts were packed and who packs them, and then the distribution of the boxes by gender and age. Each of the distributions was a little bit different.

The first distribution we attended was located at a bilingual (French and English) school in Nkola, just outside the Yaoundé city limits.

The boxes up front – hidden until a special revealing time in the program.

The children who will receive a box! The program was held outside in the school courtyard.

This young girl sand a couple of songs to get the program started!

The leaders lead a time of evangelism. It was done in French and then translated into English.

The children had the opportunity to answer questions that the leaders asked about the pictures.

Answering a question.

I had the opportunity to share with the children about packing gifts just like the ones that they would receive and about why people pack gifts for them to show the love of God.

After the revealing of the gifts!

What a great opportunity I had to help hand out some of the gifts!

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Looking at the little evangelical booklets they receive.

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What is in there?!?

At the end everybody wanted pictures with us.

Headed home! The children do not open their boxes until they get home.

Thank You Raymond!!!

 

Blessings,

Teresa 🙂

Operation Christmas Child: Part 1

Not long after we arrived in Cameroon (maybe September?) Matthew came home from work one day and said that he had a surprise. He held out his hand and was holding a Operation Christmas Child lapel pin.

Samaritan’s Purse, the organization that runs Operation Christmas Child, was having a conference on the center where Matthew’s office is. He had seen a Cameroonian friend, Raymond, with an Operation Christmas Child lapel pin. Matthew explained to Raymond that I had been involved in this program back in the United States and had packed many shoe boxes and had even been to the distribution center in North Carolina to volunteer back in October of 2008.

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(Friends that went with me to North Carolina – We had to check the boxes, seal the boxes, and then add them to bigger boxes that would be ready for shipping)

Raymond then gave Matthew the lapel pin and told him that he helped with the distribution of the boxes here in Cameroon and that when the time came we were more than welcome to come to one (or more) of the distributions of the shoe boxes to the Cameroonian children. 

Stay tuned for more about where boxes like these end up in one part of the world… Cameroon!