When 11-year-old Yves Dushime got a shiny red Hot Wheels car in a shoebox packed with Christmas goodies, he was awestruck!
“The thing that he wanted most was a red car,” said Michelle Finn, with Operation Christmas Child, a ministry of Samaritan’s Purse. “In the bottom of the box was a red scarf that he tried to trade because in Togo where he lived, it was 95 degrees. Of course, no one wanted it.
“On the top of his box was a sticky note that said, ‘God loves you, Jesus loves you, I love you,’” she added. “It shook Yves to the core. How could someone he didn’t know say they loved him and send incredible gifts!”
And yes, Yves kept the unwanted red scarf as a reminder of the hope the shoebox brought that day, an incredible gift with a very long reach.
“In 1994, Yves’ family fled the Rwandan genocide,” Finn said. “His mom was six months pregnant with him. The family walked for two weeks from Rwanda to the Congo, carrying everything they owned in baskets on their heads.”
Finn said she can understand why Yves calls his mom his hero.
The family lived in eight countries before Togo allowed them to stay as refugees. Yves was born in a refugee camp there.
“Their family was the richest in his village because they had a ‘real’ house,” Finn said. “A real house with four walls, a door and two windows. Basically, it was a 10-foot by 12-foot room.”
The youngest son, he walked two miles to wash clothes in a mucky river shared with cows, water buffalo and others. Today, Yves remains humbled by the machines that wash and dry his clothes at the push of a button.
“He likes to say there are 17 holes in his apartment where fresh water comes out of,” Finn said. “Until he moved to this country, in every village he lived, there was not one!”
Communities in Togo were ruled by traditional witch doctors. When a buzz went throughout the villages about Operation Christmas Child giving out shoeboxes, everyone came, Finn said.
“They heard the gospel and the head witch doctor asked to be baptized,” she said. “Lines of people showed up and Yves’ father, who was the pastor, baptized for two days. So (with) that one shoebox distribution … Word spread from village to village.”
Now 25, Yves lives in Buffalo, New York. He dons the red scarf when weather turns frosty, remembering that three years before his family came as refugees to New York, he was prepared for the freezing cold weather thanks to his red scarf.
“The scarf is the one thing he kept and now wears as a remembrance that God is able to use simple gifts to plant seed of hope!” Finn said. “Now Yves speaks for our organization. Every time he talks about his life, he chokes up.”
Finn said Yves hopes his sharing will multiply the number of shoeboxes to reach children whose lives could dramatically change with small gifts from strangers that offer a chance for a better life – and hope.
Operation Christmas Child operates under Samaritan’s Purse, a nondenominational evangelical Christian organization providing spiritual and physical aid to hurting people around the world. Since 1970, the organization has helped meet the needs of people who are victims of war, poverty, natural disasters, disease and famine with the purpose of sharing the gospel.
More than 168 million children have received shoeboxes since OCC’s beginnings, with 10.5 million boxes distributed last year. This year’s goal is to surpass 12 million, according to Shereen Emde-Krebs, Salem Area coordinator.
“There are three categories that stand out as being universally needed,” said Emde-Krebs. “Often children are in areas where they can’t go to school because they can’t afford the supplies. Hygiene items like soap, washcloths and toothbrushes are an absolute luxury in many of these areas. And of course, toys as most of these kids have nothing.”
Giving Week is slated for Nov. 18-25. More information, instructions on how to fill shoeboxes and drop-off locations – Stayton, Silverton, Jefferson and Salem – can be found at www.samaritanspurse.org/occ.
