By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

Désiré Nana had never received a present in his life and neither had any of his friends.

He lived in the impoverished community of Burkina Faso, West Africa.

Nana’s village did not have electricity and he walked 3 miles one way to school. His parents couldn’t pack him a lunch, so he picked mangoes along the way.

“Our parents were doing the best to feed us, so we did not have toys,” he said.

When Operation Christmas Child came to his school when he was 8 with boxes of toys and school supplies for him and his fellow classmates, it was calamity. Nana, now 25, spoke to a group of Hays residents Saturday at the Hays Downtown Pavilion about his experience with the program.

“I want you to think about it. There are these boxes,” he said. “Children have never received a box. ‘What is going on?’ There is commotion everywhere. There was a team from the United States there. ‘Why are we having people from the United State here? Are we in trouble? I think we are getting gifts.’ ”

Before the children were given their boxes, they were given a booklet in their native French called “The Greatest Gift.”

A minister gave a lesson from the book.

However, the children were rife with anticipation.

“‘Everybody was ‘Oh, my goodness when are we going to open the box!’ The preachers is preaching about Jesus dying on the cross, but I was not listening. I was all about the box. ‘Wrap it up so I can open the box!’ He kept talking and talking. I was thinking, ‘When are you going to wrap it up so we can open the box?’ ”

Finally the children were allowed to open the boxes. It was chaos. Children were ripping into the wrapping paper with their teeth. The children peered into their boxes. Some began to cry. Others screamed with excitement.

That initial sermon may not have completely sunk in with Nana, but he took home and read the booklet, which told of Christian creation, the Gospels and the crucifixion of Christ. He would not fully understand how that shoebox of trinkets would affect his life until he was 12.

Nana received a toy truck, school supplies and a toy he was not sure what to do with. He also received girl’s hair accessories, which he initially didn’t understand. Nana was the only child of his seven-person family to receive a box. Some people who pack boxes account for this and pack items for both boys and girls so the child who receives the box can share items with brothers or sisters.

He did not open the mystery toy for two weeks until one day he dropped it and it lit. His mother “freaked out.” She insisted he open it right away. “Don’t burn the house,” she said. “What is that?” She was scared. Désiré was scared.

It was a light-up yo-yo.

No one else in the village had one. He became famous in his neighborhood.

“People would ask me if they could play with it. I would say, ‘Take it easy, man. That is my toy from the United States.’ ”

There were no lights in his neighborhood, so the children would come and watch him play with his yo-yo. Eventually, he let other children borrow the toy.

Nana said the box and the truck and the yo-yo showed him someone who he did not even know loved him. They did not just say it. They made it tangible with the Christmas box.

Nana came from a Christian home, but his parents did not attend church before the Christmas boxes arrived. The nearest brick-and-mortar church was hours away. After Operation Christmas Child came to his village, his family started attending church together.

When Nana was 12, he organized a children’s ministry in his neighborhood. Two hundred children came. His ministry eventually grew to largest children’s ministry in his country.

“I remembered something about my yo-yo,” he said. “Just like the yo-yo lighted up your dark neighborhood, so are you the light of your neighborhood. According to Jesus, you are to spread out the unconditional love that has been given to you.”

He worked with Operation Christmas Child to train mission workers to accompany boxes.

“The box is just the beginning of the journey,” he said. “In two months, they won’t have the box. They will forget the box, but it is to keep Jesus in their heart. That is the whole point. We do discipleship and multiplication. … We are giving people the opportunity to hear the Gospel.”

After the boxes arrive, children can take a 12-week class guided with another booklet, “The Greatest Journey,” which is also in their language. At the end of the course, the children are given a Bible in their language, and they have a graduation ceremony.

Children don’t have graduation ceremonies in West Africa. Their parents may not know what they are studying in school and likely never attended school themselves.

“That is another opportunity for us to share the Gospel — to tell them somebody loves you and cares about you,” he said.

Churches that were planted in Burkina Faso because of the Operation Christmas Child program when Nana was a child are still operating today.

“I want to say thank you for packing boxes and making a difference,” he said. “You don’t just touch those children’s lives. You transform their lives. If you touch, it would be just for three months. But if you transform them, they know Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

“When people ask me what is the most important thing to put in my box. That is my answer — prayer. The most important thing you put in a box is not the toy that you buy. A flashlight is going to break down. They are not going to use it for eternity. They are going to forget about the box. Your prayer is going to make a difference. I believe the woman who packed my box (She did not put her name or picture in the box, so I do not know who she was.), but I know one thing — she prayed over the box. … That lady prayed I would be a disciple.

“You are actually doing something that has an impact and turning people around. You pray for people to become a disciple or a disciple-maker like me.”

Nana has been studying in the United States for two years. He recently received a scholarship to Oral Roberts University in Tulsa. He hopes to earn a degree in business and ministry. He also has a goal working to establish a hospital in Africa. He has already received a donation of medical equipment toward that goal. He hopes to fight malaria, which kills many children on the continent.

Operation Christmas Child is a branch of the nonprofit Christian mission organization Samaritan’s Purse International Relief. The organization has been led by Franklin Graham since 1979.

Operation Christmas Child encourages volunteers to pack shoeboxes with simple gifts of toys, hygiene items and school supplies. The boxes are sent to children like Nana in countries with extreme poverty or that have been stricken by war.

2.7 million children graduated “The Greatest Journey” course in 2017. 1.9 million of those children made decisions for Christ.

This year’s collection week will be Nov. 12-19. There will be two collection locations in Hays: Messiah Lutheran Church and CrossPoint Church. In 2018 Hays volunteers hope to collect 3,200 shoeboxes to contribute toward the global goal of reaching 11 million children.

If you wish to volunteer or for more information on Operation Christmas Child in northwest Kansas, contact Rachel Albin at [email protected].