Video: Shoebox Recipients Talk About Operation Christmas Child Impact

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COLUMBUS, Miss. and ATLANTA, Ga. (WCBI) — Several North Mississippi churches participate in Operation Christmas Child, and one woman who received a gift from the program years ago, now lives in the area.

“It makes a huge difference for a child. I don’t know why, maybe because it’s a surprise, and you get it from someone that you don’t know yet,” said Lorena Surducan, who received a shoebox while living in Romania.

Lorena is now studying music at Mississippi University for Women.

She’s proof Operation Christmas Child can have a big impact.

“The toys, or the school supplies, or the sweets, and that was really a huge joy for us,” Lorena said.

For Luis Gonzalez, watching volunteers prepare the shoeboxes brings back memories.

Luis now lives in Louisville, Kentucky, but he grew up in Panama.

He says his shoebox came at the perfect time. His mother didn’t have money to send him to school. Then he went to church.

“Someone handed me a shoebox. And they said, ‘This is for you. This is your gift,’ Luis said. “Then I opened the lid of my shoebox. All of the school supplies that I needed to go to school was in there.”

Lorena also enjoyed receiving the school supplies.

“They were all so colored, and had a lot of animations on them, and in Romania, we don’t have so many things to choose between. Everything is really simple,” she said.

But the toys they got were still special.

“I kept my favorite ones,” Lorena said. “So I still have one Barbie doll that I got in the shoeboxes.”

“This is the stuffed animal I got 20 years ago,” Luis said.

Both Luis and Lorena have a special message for Operation Christmas Child volunteers and others who participate in the program.

“Thank you so much for packing a shoebox,” Luis said. “You gave me hope. You’ve impacted my life.”

“I think they don’t know what a huge impact they made in the child’s story, and also, I would like them to know that everybody prays, and they bless them every time,” Lorena said.

Luis tells WCBI he’s been sending his own shoeboxes overseas since he moved to the U.S.

Lorena was excited to make her first box for a little girl this year.