Many children all over the world adore Christmas and the presents that come with it. It brings happiness and warmth to their homes once they have a feast with their families. But what about the children who cannot afford these expensive presents?

Operation Christmas Child is a well known organization that is dedicated to bringing gifts to children all over the world. 

It started out with a man named Franklin Graham who received a call from another man in England who asked if Grahman would like to fill shoeboxes with gifts for children in Eastern Europe. 

This operation then spread to churches and other facilities to the point where Operation Christmas Child has become known worldwide. It has now been in functionality for over thirty years.

I first heard of this operation at my church, New Community, and was amazed at how far this project had come. 

Due to my immense curiosity, I reached out to Franklin Graham to tour the main facility in which everything is processed. 

After a long and strenuous travel to Denver, Chicago, I finally met face to face with the mastermind.

Graham took me into a huge building that resembled a factory you would see in the early 90s. As soon as I walked in, I was faced with bright lights and thousands of people packaging the shoeboxes. I stared in awe at not only the beautifulness of the facility, but the mass quantity of humans that looked so happy while working.

Graham revealed that he “strived to make this operation as welcoming and joyful as possible for the people who volunteered,” after seeing the look on my face.

Heading in further, I noticed that there were multiple stations of millions of boxes and tape bunched together. There seemed to be about two hundred people at each station. 

Another woman, who I later found out to be named Caroline Betson, came up to me and took over the tour to provide a more in depth explanation. She explained how each volunteer came to this facility from all over the world and that there were multiple other facilities in different locations. 

She then went over the processing; first they had to open each and every box to check for any harmful or dangerous things, then you would have a big brown packaging box placed in front of you with hundreds of shoeboxes next to it, pack each shoebox in within rows, tape up the box, and carry it to another location for the next process. 

I also got to have a one on one conversation with Graham towards the end of the tour. He revealed that he had “no idea that a small act of kindness could go this far.”

After exploring the facility more and getting to know different people, I was then directed to a room with a big screen. It played videos of millions of children thanking Operation Christmas Child, as well as videos of children opening their gifts and their reactions. 

After viewing a couple of the videos, I met one of the recipients of the shoeboxes. She volunteered to work for the operation after years and years of receiving basic necessities that was a huge struggle to receive where she lived.

Becoming a part of this operation was an amazing experience. I got to see all of the ins and outs of this wonderful facility, as well as meeting hundreds of people from all over the world. Seeing the wonderful smiles on young children’s faces and learning how many churches are involved brings endless joy.