Daniel Cervantes always wondered who filled boxes delivered to his rural address in Durango, Mexico.
Now he knows. Cervantes is one of more than a dozen agricultural workers who recently completed several months work on the Kalchik Farm near Gill’s Pier.
Cervantes through and interpretor explained that he lives in a very rural mountainous area and grew up with a family of two boys, two girls and his parents.
Lacking employment opportunities in his area, at age 18, he came to the county through the H2A visa program. Cervantes, now 21, just completed his third deployment.
During his free time, Cervantes rode his bicycle to Lake Leelanau where he and his companions played basketball on the court at the Leelanau Community Church.
On one occasion, he entered the church vestibule and saw a huge display about the church’s devotion to Operation Christmas Child, an outreach effort organized by Samaritan’s Purse International Relief. That caught his eye as, from age 4 through teenage, he had been onthereceivingendof theholiday outreach.
“I helped our pastor. During a three-day festival children come together and on the third day, I helped pass them out,” Cervantes said. Every shoe box comes with various gifts and amenities from toys and school supplies to hygiene items for children in need.
Each box also includes a Christmas story in the children’s native language.
“I always wanted to know who the boxes were from,” Cervantes said. “Now I know.”
Once collected, shoe boxes are distributed by local pastors, or they go to orphanages or schools. Transportation of shoe boxes travels by camels, bikes, trucks, boats or planes. Through this project, non-profit Samaritan’s Purse, based out of Boone, North Carolina, partners with thousands of local churches worldwide to make a difference for children in need, according to Leelanau Community Church Pastor Lucy Schaub.
The Leelanau Community Church, along with many others, work all year collecting items to fill shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child.
Shoe boxes will soon begin arriving at the church in anticipation of the massive, international effort.
Leelanau Community Church is the regional collection site for Operation Christmas Child.
Suggested shoe box items include: personal care items (toothbrush, washcloth) school supplies, games, puzzles and toys.
Prohibited items include candy; toothpaste; gum; used or damaged items; scary or warrelated items such as toy guns, knives, or military figures; chocolate or food; seeds; fruit rolls or other fruit snacks; drink mixes (powdered or liquid); liquids or lotions; medications or vitamins; breakable items such as snow globes or glass containers; aerosol cans.
Boxes will be accepted from noon to 2 p.m., Nov. 18, 20, 21,22, and 23. Collection times for Nov. 19 and 24, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday, Nov. 25 the project will wrap up from 10 a.m. to noon.
Samaritan’s Purse began Operation Christmas Child back in 1993, and Leelanau Community Church began contributing to the cause in 1994.
“To think how big God is,” Schaub said. “From a village in Durango to Lake Leelanau, God brought this amazing man into our lives.”
Daniel Cervantes was happy to discover Leelanau Community Church as a source for gift shoe boxes are filled locally and sent all over the world by Samaritan’s Purse.
Enterprise photo by Amy Hubbell
