Rwanda 19 years later

Somewhere in the world today, it's time for gifts to be opened, because the twelve months of Christmas just keep rolling on and on. This year, Samaritan's Purse presents more than 6 million gift-boxes to children on every continent. Probably every day of the year, a few of those presents get opened, somewhere.

Last week the celebration of gift-giving was in Kigali, Rwanda. My daughter, Kim, was there; she works for Samaritan's Purse, the distributor of yuletide surprises that extends generosity everywhere across the world, especially in developing nations. Kim's UNC photojournalism training launched her into a career where she could share these moments:


It may not be five golden rings inside the box, or a partridge in a pear tree. But whatever the surprise booty turns out to be, my guess is that the immediate benefit of each shoebox-gift being opened will be a pound or two of joy.


That's quite a change among the children in Rwanda, compared to the class warfare and genocide that was happening there nineteen years ago.


I would not suggest that Operation Christmas Child is responsible for ending the tribal strife that tore Rwanda apart in 1994; that peacemaking task was surely accomplished by the good people of that country who made some good decisions and then acted resolutely upon them. But now Christian givers throughout the world, whose presents were prepared last fall, are happy to have contributed some fun items there-- toys and toothbrushes, jump-ropes, dolls, crayons, cracker jacks and God-knows-what-all, along with the good news of our Creator's presence among them on this troubled earth.

Glass half-Full