Published: October 24, 2007 02:48 pm            

Operation Christmas Child answers a call

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — It might be a little early for thoughts of Christmas, but the holiday is constantly on Dianna DeYoung’s mind.

DeYoung, of Garfield Township, is the area coordinator for Operation Christmas Child, a world outreach initiative that is part of Franklin Graham’s relief project Samaritan’s Purse.

Since 1993 the project, headed by the son of evangelist Billy Graham, has distributed millions of gift-filled shoeboxes along with a message of God’s love around the world in an effort to bring joy and hope to children in desperate situations.

DeYoung became involved in Operation Christmas Child seven years ago.

“I started like anybody else,” DeYoung said. “Seven years ago I knew nothing about Christmas Child.”

Back then she accepted a challenge from some acquaintances who heard a speaker discuss the ministry. She agreed to pack 10 boxes, but not without some concerns.

“I was a stay-at-home mom with limited funds. Ten shoeboxes would mean $50 in shipping plus the cost of the items — maybe $15-$20 a box,” she said.

“But that’s where I was in my faith. I didn’t understand faith. I didn’t know what it meant to believe in faith and ask God for something. I didn’t know what that meant.”

She began to pray for help filling those 10 boxes.

Two days later DeYoung got a call from a neighbor who said she had some old toys she wanted to donate to a cause.

“She opened her van, and it was filled with antique toys in their original wrappers. They were wonderful,” DeYoung said. “They filled my 10 shoeboxes and they filled my friend’s 10.”

Among the assortment, DeYoung discovered two tin locomotives that would not fit in the boxes, so she took them to an antiques dealer who cut her a check for $200 on the spot.

The sum paid for her shipping costs as well as her friends’ and she also was able to buy toiletries, school supplies and candy for them all.

After delivering the shoeboxes to a relay center, DeYoung realized she was more than hooked.

“The Lord spoke to me and told me this was my ministry. I didn’t know what that meant and it’s a good thing, because this (project) is so huge,” she said.

Next year she thought, if I can do 10, why not 20? The year after that it was 50, then 100 then 200.

Last year some 4.5 million shoeboxes went around the world from the United States alone. Children always receive a gospel message along with the box.

“It’s not just a feel good box. This gift lasts for eternity,” DeYoung said.

Because she’s always on the lookout for suitable donations, DeYoung’s home and pole barn overflow with all kinds of small toys. She has gone on Christian radio station WLJN to appeal for donations, and people have come through in ways that always surprised her.

“I’ve gotten in over 5,000 Beanie Babies,” she said, speaking of the small, beanbag animals that caused a collection craze a decade ago. “People donate their whole collection and thank me for taking them.”

Last year DeYoung’s personal goal was 1,000 shoeboxes — more than she could process at home. She went to the administrators of Traverse City Christian School asking for help. They closed the school for a day and all the students packed the boxes.

This year more than 150 volunteers filled 2,150 shoeboxes during a packing session on Sept. 29 at Grand Traverse Academy.

“Just the logistics take a miracle. I am trusting every moment that things will be there,” she said.

Since 2001, the Northern Michigan Collection Center, which up until this year has been DeYoung’s home, had shipped out more than 10,000 shoeboxes collected from the northern Michigan relay centers each November.

This year DeYoung also was able to secure the use of the vacant Lear Corporation Building on South Airport Road that recently was purchased by Faith Reformed Church. The building will be used during the week of Nov. 12 to 19 as the Traverse City collection center. And this year for the first time there also will be a collection center in Gaylord.

On a visit to one of the Christmas Child processing plants in Minnesota, where over a million boxes were being readied for shipment, DeYoung noticed stacks of hundreds of boxes of hand-knit items being added to the boxes as filler gifts. She vowed to go home and start a knitting, crocheting, quilting project. With minimum advertising, DeYoung was deluged with hand-knit hats, vests, scarves, earmuffs, booties, headbands and purses. She is asking crafters to help again this year.

“There are two sides to the boxes. One side the child receives and the other side is this ministry,” DeYoung said. “It has radically changed my life. “By giving your time, finances, talents to someone you’ll never meet, you’re giving of yourself.

“As these ladies who knit — they’re pouring their love out for these children who will feel a tangible love, and ultimately, it’s God’s love.”

DeYoung feels everyone has a call in life.

“I’m not exceptional — not special. God has given us the gifts and talents to fulfill that call, and it’s when you fulfill that call that the miracles and blessings come. That’s when you have intimacy with that most-high God, and that is our whole purpose in life.”



Gretchen Murray writes for Traverse City (Mich.) Record-Eagle. Contact her at gmurray@record-eagle.com.

        

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