To be moved with compassion - root word in the Greek is “splagcha” meaning “inward parts” or “bowels”.

In the Gospels, this word is only used to describe Jesus. Jesus was moved to the deepest part of his core.

Multiple Biblical texts where it specifically points to Jesus’ compassion leading to action:

Mark 1

Mark 6

Mark 8

Matthew 14

Matthew 20

The compassion of Jesus always leads to action: healing, feeding, forgiving, redeeming.

Even in the midst of the crowds, Jesus never loses site of the one.

In Mark 5, Jesus stops in the midst of a crowd to identify the one woman who needed hope.

Bottom Line:

Yuri’s parents abandoned her and her twin sister when they were just babies. At the age of two, she was separated from her sister and other siblings when she arrived at a Honduran orphanage and stayed there until she was 16. The directors of the orphanage did their best to provide emotional and spiritual nurturing for the children, but it was impossible to devote individual attention to so many children at the same time. Many times they did not have electricity or running water. When she turned 13, Yuri started cooking in the orphanage kitchen for 120 children and also helped take care of the babies. Living conditions in the orphanage were challenging and she felt hopeless and discouraged.

At six years of age, Yuri experienced hope for the very first time. When she was in her second grade classroom, and they were suddenly interrupted by the sounds of a helicopter that landed at the soccer field at their orphanage. Minutes later, they were led to the church building next door and saw stacks of colorfully wrapped shoeboxes waiting for them. Yuri’s favorite items in the shoebox gift were the picture of the American girl who packed the shoebox and her note which read, “Jesus loves you, and I love you too.” Seven years later, Yuri hit a very low point in her life which caused her to run away to the mountains. After hours of crying and blaming God for the life she was living, she pulled out the picture of the American little girl who packed the shoebox for her, along with her note – “Jesus loves you, and I love you too.” Three months later Yuri gave her life to Christ.

Yuri’s love and talent for school and soccer eventually opened doors for her to come to the United States, where she now works with FCA. She also has a loving and supportive Christian family. Her vision and mission for the future are to help people know that God can change people’s hearts and lives. She hopes to work as a teacher and coach with inner-city children as well as open soccer camps for impoverished youth in Honduras. When she packs shoeboxes, she tells children that Jesus loves them and that God will change their lives and that they have a future, just like God showed her.

Statistics about Operation Christmas Child

-Since 1993, Operation Christmas Child, the world’s largest Christmas project of its kind, has collected and delivered more than 168 million shoebox gifts to children in more than 160 countries and territories.

-In 2019, Operation Christmas Child hopes to collect enough shoebox gifts to reach another 11 million children in countries like Peru, the Philippines, Rwanda and Ukraine. More than 10.6 million shoebox gifts were collected worldwide in 2018, with more than 8.8 million collected in the U.S.

-Shoebox gifts are collected in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Australia, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Finland, Spain, New Zealand and Japan.

-Operation Christmas Child is a project of Samaritan’s Purse, an international Christian relief and evangelism organization headed by Franklin Graham. Samaritan’s Purse currently works in more than 100 countries to provide aid to victims of war, disease, disaster, poverty and famine

More information is available at:

https://www.samaritanspurse.org/what-we-do/operation-christmas-child/