When Izabella McMillon was 13, all she wanted for Christmas was for it to snow in her hometown of Cluj, Romania.
It never did; however, another miracle happened. One day, she received a shoebox that had a snow globe in it.
The shoebox was sent through Operation Christmas Child, an international organization that sends shoeboxes with presents in them to kids in need all over the world during Christmas time.
“It meant so much to me,” McMillon said. “I was praying for snow really hard and it was all kind of a snowball effect from there. It made me realize that there is a God that really does care.”
McMillon said several kids in her neighborhood received shoeboxes, as the place she grew up in was very poor.
“I remember people were saying that there were trucks on the street with presents in them,” she said. “ … We all didn’t have much, didn’t eat much and didn’t do much.”
Because of how poor everyone was, McMillon said when someone gave something to them for free, it was a pretty big deal. However, what was even a bigger deal for her was that she got a snow globe, which she felt was a present from God.
She said she and her older brother started attending a church on their own that had a Bible study for kids, which is how she realized that they had a Bible at home.
When she turned 24, McMillon said she moved to Hungary and lived there with her brother up until 2003, when she was 26. That was when she traveled to the states and never came back.
“My goal when I came to the states was to sharpen up my English and learn about the American culture, but God had different plans for me,” she said.
In 2004, McMillon said she started teaching at a Christian school called Golden Child Christian Academy in North Carolina.
“Another goal of mine was to teach,” she said, adding that she met her husband there and together, they now have a baby boy.
Right before Christmas in 2004, she said the OCC ministry at the school was packing up shoeboxes to send to kids in need around the world and realized that she had received one of those.
“Because I was much younger at the time, I did not realize that there was an actual organization that sent shoeboxes to kids all over,” she said.
McMillon said she eventually started helping another teacher in leading the ministry, which she said has really taken off.
“It is a small school that teaches kindergarten through the eighth grade – there were only about 90 students when I started and about 100 now,” she said. “But, just in that first year, we had each student pack a box and sent close to 100 shoeboxes all over.”
The next year, McMillon said that number more than doubled and they were able to send 250 boxes.
“Each year, we would set a goal and we would always go over that goal, raising the number each time,” she said, noting that last year, they sent 1,463 shoeboxes.
“I don’t know what our goal is this year, but I know it will be more than that,” she said.
McMillon said taking part in OCC feels really great.
“I know how much one single shoe box meant to me and to be able to send over 1,000 to kids all over is just amazing,” she said. “It is also a learning lesson for the kids that life is more than just receiving.”
Over the years, McMillon said the school has received 10-15 letters from kids that it has sent shoeboxes to and that each one of them means a lot.
“We really encourage the parents to write back,” she said. “We wrote a general letter with the school address on it to include in each of the shoeboxes.”
McMillon said one of her most special experiences with OCC was when she traveled back to Romania last December to hand out shoeboxes to the kids there.
“That was so wonderful,” she said. “I got to hand out shoeboxes and see my family.”
This Sunday, McMillon will share her shoebox story with the community of Taylor during the 11 a.m. service at the First Baptist Church, located at 701 Davis St. Anyone in the community who would like to hear her story in person can do so at that time.
Kathleen Laurence, relay site coordinator for OCC Taylor, said she is looking forward to hearing McMillon speak.
“You know, we send these gifts out in faith, trusting that God is touching lives around the globe with his love and it is exciting to hear one story when you know there are millions of others who share in her gratefulness,” she said. “This community has personally blessed over 2,000 children through Operation Christmas Child, and we look forward to sharing in the excitement of hearing Izabella’s story in person.”
