Nov 11, 2013 4 min read

As a child, Alex Nsengimana endured unimaginable horrors in war-torn Rwanda.

His mother died of AIDS when he was 4; he never met his father, and when he was 6, he watched as the grandmother who raised him and an uncle were murdered by Hutu neighbors. The Rwandan genocide in 1994 wsa one of the bloodiest three-month periods in history, which left nearly 1 million Tutsi men, women and children dead.

Nsengimana and his siblings spent months on the run – he recalls one day that a bullet whizzed by his head when he slipped in cow dung, and another when militants argued in front of him whether or not they should kill him – until he and his brother were placed in an orphanage in Kigali (their sister was too old) with 250 other children in 1995.

Nsengimana, 25, shared his story recently with an audience at Church of the Covenant in Washington, where he talked about how a shoebox he received from Operation Christmas Child, a project sponsored by the humanitarian organization Samaritan’s Purse, changed his life.

“We were told to line up in the yard to get ready to receive a gift from America,” recalled Nsengimana. “In my box were school supplies, toiletries and toys like soccer balls and little cars. I was so excited. The shoebox planted a seed of hope in my life when I needed it. It reminded me that someone out there was thinking about me.”

The box also contained two items that stand out in Nsengimana’s memory: a folding comb that he kept for several years and a candy cane. He didn’t know what the red and white stick was, and when he bit into it, he was delighted by the cool, minty flavor. He quickly figured out that the clear plastic wrapper was not edible, he said.

For many children, the shoebox is the first gift they have ever received, according to Christine Hainer, the area’s coordinator for Operation Christmas Child.

Last year, Operation Christmas Children sent more than 9 million shoebox gifts across the world. This year, the goal for the Mid-Atlantic Region (which includes Washington and Greene counties and has ranked first in collections for the past three years) is to collect 1 million shoeboxes. Since the program began 20 years ago, it has sent more than 100 million shoeboxes to children in about 100 countries.

For anyone who wonders what difference a shoebox makes, all they have to do is spend some time with Nsengimana, who graduated with a degree in pastoral studies from Crossroads College in Minnesota. He said the shoebox helped him find his faith.

Less than a year after he received his shoebox, Nsengimana was randomly selected with 12 other children to join the African Children’s Choir and began touring the United States.

He traveled with the choir for a few years, and when he returned to Rwanda, Nsengimana was looking through a photo album when he noticed the address on the back of a photo he had taken with a family in Minnesota. Nsengimana wrote a letter to the family, who had wondered what happened to him and offered to fund his education in the United States.

In March, Nsengimana returned to Rwanda to deliver shoeboxes in the same orphanage he had spent part of his childhood. He also went to a local jail and met with one of the men who killed his family.

For years, Nsengimana struggled to understand why he had survived when nearly 1 million others hadn’t, but he said he finally realized that God had a plan for him. Nsengimana forgave the man, a Hutu who had been friends with Nsengimana’s uncle before the war.

“You will never have peace until you let go of the anger you feel. It’s not easy to let go, but you have to,” said Nsengimana.

He hopes to build a church in his hometown and plans to continue to promote Operation Christmas Child.

“I do not tell my story to draw attention to myself. I tell it to give glory to God and to let people know that a shoebox can make a difference in someone’s life,” said Nsengimana. “The box is a little step to get into the hearts of the kids and it helps them to know that someone loves them.”

For more information about Operation Christmas Child and its mission, go to www.samaritanspurse.org and click on the link at the bottom of the page. Local residents who want to volunteer or donate can contact Hainer at chrishainer@gmail.com.

On Nov. 16, there will be a community packing party sponsored by KLOVE and hosted by Lighthouse Electric Company, 1957 Route 519, Canonsburg. A guest speaker, Livia Satterfield, a former shoebox recipient, will be present. Operation Christmas Child campaign kicks off Nov. 18.