How One Act of Kindness Changed a Life; Woman's Ministry Traced Back to a Simple Gift
"It reminded me that when I was 10 someone came and gave me a shoebox and showed me hope and now I get to do the same thing for those kids."
Samaritan's Purse project, Operation Christmas Child, has highlighted the remarkable story of 19-year-old, former Russian orphan Tanya Poteet, whose life was forever changed by one act of kindness.
According to a story published in The Christian Post, Poteet "was once a hopeless child in a Russian orphanage who thought no one loved her—including her still living alcoholic parents. Although her parents were poor, they could have afforded to buy her a small present with the money they spent on liquor." (Photo: Samaritan's Purse)
Then, one day Operation Christmas Child came to her orphanage and gave her a small gift. "I was told no one loved me and no one ever will," Poteet said. "My shoebox gift it was the first present I ever received."
When she was 14, Poteet reportedly met an American Christian couple at an adoption camp who not only adopted her but also her two younger siblings who were all living in different orphanages. Poteet's adopted mother took them shopping for gifts to fill shoeboxes, at which point Poteet remembered the impact a similar gift had on her years before. Today, Poteet is an intern with Operation Christmas Child and has recently completed a mission trip to Ecuador to deliver shoeboxes to poverty-stricken children.
"It reminded me that when I was 10 someone came and gave me a shoebox and showed me hope and now I get to do the same thing for those kids," she said, adding that she wants to "dedicate her life to work with an international ministry that cares for orphans and let them know that 'someone loves them no matter what’s going on.'"
