Imagine you are a child living in a poor or war-torn country. You don’t have clean water, you hardly have enough food, there is much disease and death.

One day, strangers appear with a truck filled with brightly-wrapped packages. You can hardly believe it, but one of those colorful packages is for you! You open it to find gloves, socks, soap, your very own toothbrush and toothpaste, crayons and pads of paper, a flashlight and a teddy bear.

There are also some papers with words on them that the strangers tell you are about a man named Jesus. You learn that He was a man who lived on earth long ago and taught people about loving one another. He now lives in heaven and is making a place for those that follow Him. You have this feeling inside that is different than anything you have ever felt before. You want to know more.

Although the details of the story above are imaginary, last fall, students at Whittier Adventist Elementary School, in Whittier, Calif., helped to make the story true for 32 children somewhere in the world. Every November for the past eight years, these students have looked forward to Operation Christmas Child, an event created by Franklin Graham and Samaritan’s Purse.

Students purchase small gifts of toys, clothing, stationery items, toiletries, stuffed animals and candies and take a morning off school to pack shoeboxes with their gifts. The boxes are then wrapped in Christmas paper and sent on to the local collection point with millions of other packages which are dispersed around the world.

The students at Whittier Adventist Elementary are pleased to share their wealth with children who may receive this shoebox gift as their only Christmas present. Whittier students know they can come to school every day and talk about Jesus and how He loves them. They delight that some other child may hear about Jesus for the very first time via their shoeboxes.