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Making friends around the world |
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Thursday, 08 May 2008 |
 By ELLEN MORTENSEN
Chief Managing Editor
CALLAWAY - - When 11-year-old Rebecca Still of Callaway packed her shoebox full of Christmas toys and goodies last winter, she could have never guessed that a few months later she would get a response from another young girl half-way around the world. But that is exactly what happened.
This was the third year the Callaway fifth grader has filled a shoebox for donation to Operation Christmas Child. The organization, which is a subsidiary of Franklin Graham’s ministry Samaritan’s Purse, sends Christmas “shoebox” packages around the world, and is funded entirely by donations like Rebecca’s.
She selects the items specifically for another little girl in her age group, packs them all neatly into a shoebox, then takes the time to write a letter to the child who will receive her box. It is a process Rebecca has done the last two years, but this year was different.
Early last month, Rebecca received an envelope in the mail with a foreign name and address. To her amazement, when she opened it she discovered several pictures of the child who had gotten her Christmas package. Included with the pictures was a note written by an American missionary in China.
The missionary, Margaret Wiles, said in her not that she is part of a six-person team, with members from Holland, South Africa, England and the U.S., who came together to hand out the gift boxes in China. Wiles explained that the boxes went to children in small mountain schools in Yunnan, China.
She goes on to say that Rebecca’s was the first box, out of 5,000 boxes they handed out that day, that was from Nebraska. Wiles had her camera along and snapped some pictures of the young girl who got Rebecca’s box and the school she attends.
Wiles wrote, “I used to make shoeboxes to send to children around the world. Now I give them out!”
Rebecca was excited to hear back from the letter she included in her package.
“I liked getting to see the pictures and what they look like and what their school looks like,” Rebecca said. “Their school looks like an apartment building!”
The smiling Rebecca says she definitely plans to continue packing shoeboxes, and enjoys spreading a little Christmas cheer half way around the world. |
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Last Updated ( Friday, 16 May 2008 )
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Huskers.com
