EL SALVADOR — Moises Groezinger shares how his life was transformed when he received an Operation Christmas Child shoebox gift as an orphan in El Salvador.

Moises Groezinger:

My name is Moises Groezinger. I’m from El Salvador. I’m a volunteer firefighter. I don’t know much about my country because I was raised in an orphanage. I’ve always wanted the love of a family. And growing up, that was really hard because I always asked myself, if I wasn’t good enough for my family, would I ever be good enough for anyone else?

One day we were told there is going to be people from the United States that were going to come into the orphanage and bring us gifts. Who would give a kid that didn’t have any parents gifts?

But I remember they started walking up and they started to put red and green shoeboxes on the kitchen table. They tell us to sit down on the kitchen floor and then they start saying many things.

But the only thing that I could remember was the phrase that they share with us Jesus loves you. But I remember thinking maybe they meant Jesus loves those who have parents. I started to walk away with my head down, and as I’m walking away, there’s a man who was distributing the boxes who asked me to come back with a smile on his face.

He looked directly into my eyes, and then one more time he reminds me that Jesus loves me and then hands me my very first gift.

I also received The Greatest Gift booklet, with many stories from the Bible, but it also came in my very own language. A few weeks later, I called one of the adults taking care of us, and I asked her, would you help me understand this? Would you help me read this? And that’s when we read it together. And I finally understood what the book was talking about.

And that’s when my prayer journey began. And I started to pray for a family of my own. When I was ten years old, they told me there was going to be a family in the United States who wanted to adopt me. A few weeks later, we drove to the airport and that’s when I saw, two Americans. And I just remember running to them and calling them familia.

Coming into the United States was a very difficult experience and just also getting used to the love of the family. With all the catching up that I had to do my relationship with the law just drifted away. So that’s when my parents took me on my first mission trip, and I remember having a terrible attitude about it because I didn’t want to go.

They take me anyways, and I remember just seeing so many kids running to you and just giving you a hug. That was me not long ago. You see, those kids just wanted to be loved, cared and seen. The Lord has not just given me a family, but also a purpose. It wasn’t until recently where I was reunited with Samaritan’s Purse Operation Christmas Child, but I decided to serve and I gave my hope is to bring the gospel to the ends of the earth and share the greatest gift with boys and girls all over the world.

Samaritan’s Purse is a nondenominational evangelical Christian organization providing spiritual and physical aid to hurting people around the world. Since 1970, Samaritan’s Purse has helped meet the needs of people who are victims of war, poverty, natural disasters, disease, and famine with the purpose of sharing God’s love through His Son, Jesus Christ. The organization serves the Church worldwide to promote the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The mission of Operation Christmas Child is to demonstrate God’s love in a tangible way to children in need around the world. Through this project, Samaritan’s Purse partners with the local church worldwide to share the Good News of Jesus Christ and make disciples of the nations.

CONTACT: Kaitlyn Lahm, news@samaritan.org

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