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Charity project Operation Christmas Child is carried out in Russia annually since December 1996. The project is taking place in more than 70 countries. In Russia children receive Christmas shoe boxes from Kaliningrad to Chukotka, including the regions of Far North and Southern regions.
It is very important for each child to receive a present during Christmas and New Year holidays. Christmas expectations are expectations of love, care and understanding, which should be part of every child’s life, including children from orphanages and children shelters, kids from socially vulnerable families, large families, one parent families, children that lack love and attention in their everyday life. For many of these kids a Christmas shoe box may be the first present they have ever received.
The presents, provided by Samaritan’s Purse Int., are gathered by children and families from the United Kingdom and the United States.
Plain shoe boxes, rapped in colourful gift paper, along with presents containing photographs, warm letters and congratulations, are examples of sincere love and care of those who packed them.
The language of love does not need any interpretation; people all over the world understand it. Love is not manipulative or proud; but it uses the language of mercy and acceptance, which open all the locked doors and break the highest walls.
Perhaps, a most important thing here is that we learn not only to receive, but to give. For many children in Russia Operation Christmas Child served as an example of practical way of showing love and care to others. Those children who received Christmas shoe boxes in previous years now try to pack a box and give it to some other child.
The project is coordinated by Russia Inland together with Russian Union of Evangelical Christian-Baptists, Association of Spiritual Renewal, with participation of Russian Orthodox Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Russia, the Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Middle Asian Republics, and Christian Social Movement.
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OCC - January 2005
The distributions:
The trip was an extremely positive one in as much as we did not see too much that was upsetting or very sick children. We did hear some very sad tales and it was clear that all the premises that we visited were in dire need. All the buildings were in a poor state and there were few resources for the children, toilets and bathrooms were in an unbelievably dilapidated and smelly state.
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Journal: OCC mission trip. January 4-8, 2005
The first boy's name is Alyosha, age 13. As I was told later, his adoptive mother’s parents take him home for week-ends. Many years ago this couple adopted one girl from an orphanage. When she was 16 she gave a birth to a little boy who was named Alyosha. But because the mother was too young she died almost right after childbirth. Thus, a boy became an orphan. The adoptive grandparents were not sure they would be able to bring Alyosha up. Because they are old and have not enough money, they brought Alyosha to that orphanage.
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