Christmas Box Brought Two People Together 14-Years After Sending The Gift

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November 10, 2017

For several years I was apart of the Christmas shoe box drive at my church. This shoe drive is where you get a shoe box and fill it with supplies for an orphan or for kids in need in other countries. It was so fun to do and I enjoyed taking my nieces and nephews to the store to fill it up for kids. They were excited to give to kids and they loved filling the boxes with things they liked for other kids. It was a great way to teach kids to give and to think beyond themselves.

Samaritan's Purse is an organization that spreads love through giving these boxes to kids less fortunate around Christmas time. According to Samaritan's Purse over 135 million children in 150 countries have received a gift-filled box since the program began in 1993. It all happens around the time of Thanksgiving, volunteers put together boxes and get them ready to send all around the world to children who are considered to be at risk or in third-world areas.

This is the story of a young girl and a young boy and how their lives came together. In 2000, at the age of 7, Tyrel Wolfe and his family participated in a project that would change their lives forever. Tyrel filled his box and added a picture of himself in it. He turned it in not thinking much more about it after that. Tyrel’s package was sent to a young girl around his own age in the Philippines.

14 years after Tyrel put together the box, he received a friend request on Facebook from a woman named Joana Marchan who lived in the Philippines.Joana and Tyrel started messaging and after some time of getting to know Joana, Tyrel decided it was time to go to the Philippines to see if she really was who she said she was.

After arriving in the Philippines, Tyrel and Joanna hit it off and the rest is history. The two fell in love and got married and they owe it all to this little shoe box full of presents for a child in need. What an amazing story. Proves anything is possible. 

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