A shoebox changed his life
By Bill Hardy For The Daily World • October 12, 2023 1:30 am
As a young boy in a small village on Africa’s Ivory Coast, Schiméa Nguessan’s earthly father had passed away. Nguessan recalls praying for a gift.
“Even though we don’t see a father in this house, we have a Father in heaven who loves and cares for us,” Nguessan’s mother said nightly.
Schiméa asked if this heavenly Father could also give gifts like he saw the other kids had. His mother encouraged him to pray and ask.
After church one Sunday, Nguessan entered a big room that held red-and-green shoe boxes. He thought each box might be for two or three children to share, but to his delight, he got a whole shoe box gift all to himself!
“I would feel the joy in that box,” Nguessan said.
His favorite gift was a little yellow race car.
Now as an adult, Nguessan is coming to Aberdeen this Friday night to share how that simple shoe box changed his life. He is on a nationwide speaker tour, and will be at the Aberdeen First United Methodist Church, 2nd and Broadway, at 7 p.m.
He is one of millions of children around the world who have received shoe boxes each year from Operation Christmas Child, a ministry of Samaritan’s Purse. For many, it is the first gift the child has ever received in their life.
Hundreds of those boxes have been packed right here in Grays Harbor County. Central Park Baptist Church has an entire room dedicated to assembling boxes year-round, and so far in 2023 have packed more than 600.
Worldwide, Franklin Graham’s team traveled to Ukraine last year to personally hand out the 200 millionth shoe box since the program began in 1993.
Nguessan’s visit to Aberdeen is special. The nationwide speaker tours only occur every 10 years, and Caroline Hardy of Aberdeen First United Methodist Church joined with Pam Pratt of Central Park Baptist Church to be sure he would come to the Harbor.
“I did not know the one who packed the shoe box for me,”Nguessan says, “but I know something — God touched a stranger’s heart to pack a shoe box full of love sent right to me.”
He will also stop by Christian Cable Ministries Channel 20 on Heron Street, and record a segment to be seen next week during the channel’s Share-a-Thon.
Nguessan’s meet-and-greet at Aberdeen First United Methodist will be at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 13, at 100 E. 2nd Street in Aberdeen. The event is free. Following Nguessan’s presentation, there will be light refreshments served and a chance to talk with this amazing young man.
Source link : https://www.thedailyworld.com/news/a-shoebox-changed-his-life/
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Publish date : 2023-10-12 07:00:00
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