The Greatest Gift

Junior Jennie Endersby explains the importance of Operation Christmas Child to her and to those that the program impacts.

On Reading Day Eve, a group of Davidson students and supporters of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and Methodist College Fellowship spent four hours at the Operation Christmas Child processing center in Charlotte. This trip was the culmination of several weeks’ work of preparation and packaging. Yet this type of work was a fun and refreshing break from the end-of-semester studies.

Operation Christmas Child is a Samaritan’s Purse organization that distributes gifts to kids across the globe who otherwise would not receive presents for Christmas. These gifts come in the form of shoeboxes filled with toys, school supplies, hygiene products, and other small items. In addition to the boxes, the kids receive “The Greatest Gift” booklet in their language that narrates some principal Bible stories. These kids can then choose to embark on a twelve-lesson Bible study, where they have the opportunity to learn about and accept Jesus as their Savior and receive a New Testament upon completion.

Personally, I have enjoyed packaging boxes for Operation Christmas Child ever since I heard about it three years ago. I respect that OCC is so meticulous, informed, and organized. At the processing center, every volunteer’s job is specific and necessary, from taping closed each box in an assembly line to bagging candy in a special station. In addition, each evening, the boxes in the center are prepared for two countries. Consequently, each box can be specifically inspected with those two places in mind. For example, boxes for some countries cannot include anything pig-related, such as a Winnie the Pooh toy, or anything bearing an American flag or the name USA. In general, food and chocolate, liquids, army-related toys, and money are taken out of boxes in order to protect the box and the child. However, I appreciate that these items are not thrown away but rather sorted and given to local shelters and charities. The money goes towards shipping the boxes. Moreover, one of my favorite parts of preparing for this event was shopping for boxes, putting them together, and personalizing each one with my own selected items for a specific gender and age. So I appreciate that rather than removing the specified articles, the inspectors must keep each box as they found it.

However, more important than the gifts themselves, these boxes instigate kids’ curiosity to discover the greatest gift of Christ’s sacrifice for humankind. As a result of the change in these kids’ lives, many of their friends and parents also start coming to church and eventually accept Christ. To know that each box has been made with love, prayed for, and knowledgeably inspected gives me faith that the box will bring nothing but good news to the child on the receiving end. I realize that our role in preparing these boxes is only the first step of this journey, but I thank God that I and other Davidson students and OCC volunteers can play any part in transforming not only these kids’ lives but possibly our own.

If you have any questions about the former article, contant Jennie here.                       For more information about Operation Christmas Child and Samaritan’s Purse, visit http://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/OCC/.

Reflections, chronologically

Senior Austin Totty reflects on his experience of the Interfaith Fall Break Trip using poetry.

(9:47 am, Saturday)

In this place there is purpose.

Life to give to life desperate for it

and a piece of bread.

Smile at the old woman and her

grandchild, coloring.

(2:09 am, Monday)

In this place there is purpose.

Tired eyes and open ears until

two in the morning.

Union in distinction and submission

to difference.

(10:15 pm, Monday)

Happiness is chopping

1000 lbs of carrots

and a sandwich in the hand of a

retired boxer.

Truth is “I’m hungry”

in the eyes and

“how could we let this happen?”

in the gut.

(3:56 am, Thursday)

Purpose is weapons down,

together, different,

us, them,

grab a bagel and some coffee,

there’s work to do.

Sunday Divine Liturgy:

A Glimpse into Orthodox Christianity in America

Senior Joseph Sills discusses his experiences at St. Nicholas Orthodox Church.

What better way to start a Sunday morning than a two-hour standing service at a Russian Orthodox Church? I guess that’s what our trip leaders thought, so that’s what we did.

In fact, St. Nicholas began as a Russian Orthodox Church before joining the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) in 1970 to reach an ever growing English speaking congregation. The church, however, still shows signs of its roots. Many of the members are still Russian, and many of the icons in the church bear Russian writing as opposed to the Greek more common in OCA churches.

Upon entering, the burning incense, chanting choir, and colorful icons engaged our senses; this promised to be an interactive service. In fact, as the service progressed I felt prompted to participate, so I began forming the sign of the cross every time the priest spoke “in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit”, I bowed as he sent out incense to the congregation, and I sang the best I could. You see, Orthodox Christianity is not new to me. Many of my family members who have grown up Protestant have become Orthodox in their adulthood, and I have attended many of their services. But at St. Nicholas, something caught my attention—the atmosphere of the service reignited my curiosity in this ancient expression of Christian faith.

Afterwards, we spoke with the priest, Father Maximus, about some of the Orthodox rituals. As he explained several practices such as iconography and praying to saints, Father Maximus interwove stories of his own experience as his adolescence as a nominal Catholic, young adulthood as a Protestant evangelist, and ultimately his ordination as an Orthodox priest. At first I was struck with the breadth of the religious tradition he had traversed, and then I wondered how hard it must have been to be uprooted twice out of comfort and placed in a new and terrifying religious context. Father Maximus’ life reminded us all that the pursuit for excellence and truth never really ends and that as life progresses one’s faith path can take unexpected and even unasked for turns. Nevertheless, the joy in the man’s face revealed a faith not in himself, but in a Power who would accompany him through whatever life might bring next.

Thus in one of the world’s most ancient and firmly rooted Christian faith traditions, I felt affirmation to pursue my faith journey with all its twists and turns, ready to allow flexibility and vitality to take me somewhere I would not have dreamed.

If I am not for myself, then who will be for me?  If I am only for myself, then who am I? –Hillel

Sophomore Alexis Grant considers the spiritual gray area that coexists with interfaith.

Interfaith is complicated. Even after participating in almost a semester’s worth of interfaith service, event planning, and research, I still find it difficult to define the word with certainty. Is interfaith a movement or a belief? A floaty, unrealized concept, or a vision of a reality that might be worth working towards? It seems to me that these difficulties stem from what might initially look like an inherent contradiction in the term ‘interfaith’.

How can a cohesive movement rightly stand for honoring both the similarities and the distinctions between different faiths? How can something logically call for a simultaneous togetherness and apartness? The interfaith relationship, one can assume, must be complex in order to encapsulate such oppositional concepts as generalization and distinction at the same time. I must admit that throughout this semester working as an interfaith scholar in the Chaplain’s Office, I have sometimes allowed my idea of interfaith to be reduced as such—as a complex term laden with insupportable contradictions. Somehow, though, in spite of this, interfaith exists, is in motion, and is progressing. So, how?

I think medieval Jewish philosopher Hillel said it best when he said, “If I am not for myself, then who will be for me? If I am only for myself, then who am I?” Basically, Hillel calls on the grey area between individual identity and membership within a pluralistic society. He posits that individual existence depends wholly on this middle-of-the-road relationship between pure self-interest and connection to the common good. Interfaith exists in this grey area—in this principle gap.

I can’t define interfaith. But I think it’s possible that I don’t need to in order to walk in this spiritual grey area, assisted by tolerance, appreciation for the beliefs of others and love for my own traditions. Through interfaith I can be for myself and others.