ABC of OCC - L

L is for love...of course. From the early days of OCC, it was noticed that the contents of the box were greater than the sum of its parts. There was something else inside. It was almost as though those poor needy children in Romania were touched by something they had never felt before - the love and care that went into the box when it was made.

In preparation for a Celebration Service we are having in Wrexham this Sunday - (12th December 1990 is when the first operation Christmas Child Convoy left) I have been talking to some of the people who visited orphanages in Romania after the revolution and reading the old newspaper reports abot OCC. To say that the team were traumatised doesn't come close, some just could not cope with seeing children who were completely unloved and uncared for. Paul Wilcox who worked for the Wrexham Mail at the time wrote:

“Although I’d mentally prepared myself for this, it was beyond all my imaginations. There wasn’t one of us who didn’t break down in tears at one point or another. We saw rooms full of kids starved of affection and love. The children had no stimulation at all and when we gave them the shoeboxes their faces just lit up. One of the kids didn’t know what to do with the box and as the driver took things out of the box, the child became so overwhelmed that his legs gave way and he just fainted."

In 2008, we were giving shoeboxes out in an orphanage in Belarus. Although short of resources these places are staffed by ladies who really care for the children who do their best - (Sting once sang The Russians Love Their Children Too). There was a little girl there who was very quiet and we were told that her mother had brought her to the place when she was 18 months old saying that she would be back soon to pick her up. That was 3 years ago and little Misha still waits... but at least this Christmas she had a present with a little note inside that told her she was loved....