Operation Christmas Child Shoebox Recipient Dania Yadago Will Be Telling Her Story in Franklin and Sylva

Thursday, October 6th, 6:30 pm        Friday, October 7th, 6:00 pm

Cowee Baptist Church                                     Faith Baptist Church

6301 Bryson City Road (Highway 28 North)                  714 Webster Road

Franklin, North Carolina                                                               Sylva, NC

Dania Yadago and her family lived in three Middle Eastern countries before they finally made their way to the United States through the United Nations Commission for Human Rights. Dania and her family lived in severe poverty with days when they did not have anything to eat.

Because there wasn’t much that Dania’s parents could afford, if they wanted something, the only thing they could do was to pray for it. This particular year Dania’s family had a very specific prayer. They prayed every day for a radio. When they received their shoebox, Dania and her brother were thrilled with excitement to go through the special gifts that this box held. They were ecstatic that someone who they probably won’t ever meet on this side of the world, thought of them, prayed for them and sent them a tangible act of love. What excited them the most was that everything in their shoebox was new! Dania treasured every item that they received – color pencils, crayons, coloring books, hard candy, puzzle books and soap. She especially loved the smell of soap. Every night Dania would open her shoebox, take each item out of the box, count them, and then put them back in the box. She was so afraid to lose them or have them stolen. Sometimes she was afraid of using her items because she didn’t want to run out of them. But that wasn’t all there was to the shoebox. As Dania and her family carefully went through each item in their gift, they shrieked in disbelief as they pulled out from inside of their Operation Christmas Child shoebox, a fully functional radio – A very specific answer to a very specific prayer! That day Dania learned that with God, all things are possible. She learned that there is power in prayer. Because of it, today, Dania fights every battle, celebrates every victory and makes every plea, on her knees.

Dania is studying at Salem College, majoring in education with a music minor. She loves Operation Christmas Child, packs shoeboxes and shares her love for the Lord and for this ministry whenever she has an opportunity.

Operation Christmas Child is a project of Samaritan’s Purse, an international Christian relief and evangelism organization headed by Franklin Graham. The mission of Operation Christmas Child is to demonstrate God’s love in a tangible way to children in need around the world, and together with the local church worldwide, to share the Good News of Jesus Christ. Since 1993, Operation Christmas Child has collected and delivered more than 135 million gift-filled shoeboxes to children in more than 150 countries and territories. For many of these children, the gift-filled shoebox is the first gift they have ever received.   

National Collection Week for gift-filled shoeboxes is Nov. 14-21; look for Drop-Off Locations and Times in local papers, or at samaritanspurse.org/occ in early November. This year Operation Christmas Child hopes to collect enough shoebox gifts to reach another 12 million children.