By LINN ANN HUNTINGTON
Special to Hays Post
When Vanessa Mejia-Hutchinson was a child growing up in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, she remembers that her family often struggled financially. There was sometimes no money for the children’s school tuition, and they would be sent home from school as a result.
Many times there was not enough money for formula for her baby sister. Often the family wondered where their next meal or mortgage payment would come from. When Vanessa was in school, she was often teased because her shoes and uniform were old and worn. Through it all, Vanessa says her parents encouraged her to thank God for every provision.
One day when she was 10, after a particularly bad day at school, she said a prayer, asking God for a single pair of socks.
But weeks went by and no socks.
Then the pastor of her church invited the children to a “special surprise event.” Vanessa arrived to see a big, red shiny box with a gold ribbon. “It was the shiniest thing I’d ever seen in my life,” she recalls.
Inside were red and green shoeboxes with the picture of a small airplane on the lids. The pastor handed a shoebox to each child. When Vanessa opened hers, right on top was a pair of fluffy, pink socks.
Other gift items tumbled out—stickers, beautiful pencils, scented crayons, a hairbrush, a stuffed white puppy. She counted them, “16 small presents in the one shoebox present.”
She knew her family could not have afforded all these gifts. She asked her father, “Who sent me this?”
He replied, “It was Jesus.”
That’s the story that Vanessa shared on April 25 at Messiah Lutheran Church in Hays. It would be several years before Vanessa learned that the shoebox gifts came via Operation Christmas Child (OCC).
OCC is a ministry of Samaritan’s Purse, an international relief organization headquartered in Boone, N.C.
Each year thousands of people fill simple shoeboxes with small toys, school supplies, and hygiene items. These shoeboxes are then gathered and distributed to children in need around the world. Rachel Albin of Hays, Northwest Kansas OCC Director, said for many children this is the first gift they have ever received.
In each shoebox is a pamphlet, titled “The Greatest Gift,” in the child’s language, telling the child about Jesus and his love for them. Albin said for many children this is also the first time they have ever heard about Jesus.
That was not the case with Vanessa. Four years before she received her shoebox, when she was 6, a woman invited Vanessa to church. There she heard the Bible story of the 10 lepers (Luke 17:11-19). The fact that Jesus cared for those who were suffering and wanted to be around them meant a lot to her. Vanessa invited Christ into her life that Sunday morning.
Her father was not happy when she told him about it. “At that time, he was very anti-God,” Vanessa says, and he ordered her not to return to the church. But her mother disagreed. Vanessa began to pray for both of her parents.
When Vanessa was 9 years old, her father was in a serious car accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down. Doctors told him he would never walk again. A group from Vanessa’s church asked to pray for him, and he was completely healed. This prompted him to give his life to Jesus, too. Her mother soon followed, and they began attending church as a family. Eventually, both of her parents began pastoring a church in Honduras.
Vanessa says receiving the OCC shoebox 25 years ago changed her life in many ways. “Jesus was saying to me, ‘I will take care of you,’” Vanessa says. She believes he has in many ways. Later she received a scholarship to attend a bilingual school in Honduras and learned to speak English.
In 2017 a mission team from Oregon came to Honduras to work with her parents’ church. Vanessa, because of her English skills, served as a translator for the group. One of the young men on the team was Bart Hutchinson.
She and Bart married in 2018, and Vanessa moved to Oregon. At Christmas that year she and her husband went shopping. In one store window she saw a display with a familiar red and green shoebox with the picture of a small airplane on the lid. She asked her husband about it, and he told her it was an Operation Christmas Child shoebox.
She told him she had one received one as a child, and he began to cry. He told her his grandmother for years had donated items for OCC boxes and had always prayed for the children who would receive them. She, in turn, had introduced Bart’s mom to the tradition of packing shoeboxes.
“Even though my husband’s grandmother had been gone for many years, we have always believed she had a hand in bringing us together,” Vanessa says.
In 2020 Vanessa connected with OCC and became a speaker. She is preparing to graduate in June with a Ph.D. from Oregon State University in Education: language, equity and educational policies.
As for the future, she says, “I am looking for a job in higher education, starting as an instructor and then pursuing a professor status. I want to continue working in academia, especially research in multilingual and multicultural educational contexts.”
She and her husband also are busy raising Gracie May, age 4.
If there was an overriding message, Vanessa left with her audience in Hays, it was this: “Jesus is changing lives, people’s stories, all through one shoebox. Always pray for the child who will receive your box. It could be a future president of a country or an ambassador.”
Albin of Hays also stressed that message. In 2019 Albin attended an OCC gift distribution event in Namibia. She said the children’s reactions when they opened their shoeboxes was an experience she will never forget. “They were so excited. Each shoebox touches 7 to 10 lives,” she said—not just the child, but their family and extended family.
After receiving their gifts, children have the option of enrolling in a free 12-week “Greatest Journey Program,” where they learn more about Jesus, Albin said.
In 2025, people in her district of Northwest Kansas packed 13,916 shoeboxes, Albin said. This is a 117 percent increase over the past nine years, she added.
After the shoeboxes are collected in towns such as Hays, they are transported to one of the eight regional processing centers in the U.S. LuAnn Walters of Hays, who attended the April 25 event, has volunteered for several years at the Denver processing center where the boxes from Northwest Kansas are usually taken.
She said last year the boxes from Northwest Kansas were shipped to Mexico, the Philippines, and “a hard-to-reach country” that cannot be identified for security reasons.
According to the OCC website, “Since 1993, Operation Christmas Child has collected and delivered more than 244 million gift-filled shoeboxes to children in more than 170 countries and territories.”
The OCC Shoebox National Collection Week this year is Nov. 16-23.
Albin said there are numerous year-round volunteer opportunities with the OCC team in Northwest Kansas. Those wishing more information about volunteering may contact her at ralbinmk@yahoo.com or call or text (785) 639-1325.
Those wishing to know more about Operation Christmas Child may visit samaritanspurse.org/occ.