Serbeze’s Story

For four-year-old Serbeze, a shoebox full of simple gifts isn’t just a present – it’s treasure!

Serbeze’s parents are both unemployed and live in extreme poverty, struggling daily to provide food for their three children. As a result, the children do not attend school and miss out on the opportunities education can bring. To make ends meet, the parents collect rubbish and cans on the streets of Gjakova, Kosovo, doing whatever they can to support their family.

Serbeze found essential items she needed, such as toothbrushes, soap, and a comb, all of which will help promote cleanliness and create self-confidence. She also appreciated the hat and scarf, which will help to keep her warm during the cold winter.

“For Serbeze, the shoebox isn’t just a gift,” says Shoebox distributor, Faton Berisha, “It is a moment of joy and love.”

Zlatko's Story

Sixty-three-year-old Zlatko was searching through other people’s rubbish in the city of Kragujevac, when he was approached by David Armus from Blythswood Serbia. “I’m looking for something to eat,” he explained to David. “And maybe some things that could be useful to me.”

“Zlatko lives with his brother in very poor conditions,” says David, remembering that December afternoon distributing shoeboxes. “You can imagine how much your gifts meant to him – a warm hat, scarf, gloves, sweets and hygiene products. He was so grateful.”

Vladyslav, Dmytro and Taras Story

Vladyslav (7), Dmytro (5) and Taras (6) are three brothers growing up in Ternopil Oblast, Ukraine. Their father was seriously injured while defending his country and the family lives in a village, in difficult circumstances. “Our partners visited the family and passed on your gifts to them personally,” says Ivan Hontar who leads the work of Ukrainian charity Light of the Reformation, based in the city of Ternopil. “The children really liked the toys and sweets which they found in their boxes. The parents appreciated that the gifts included practical items such as clothes and toiletries.”

With the invasion in its fourth year, the overall number of injured Ukrainian soldiers is estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands.

Gedeon's Story

Gedeon received his shoebox in a bus station. No, he wasn’t going anywhere. Quite simply, the bus station is warm. And it has an indoor toilet and wash basin. Home has none of these luxuries. Soon, as the oldest man in the house, the 10-year-old will leave his mum and four siblings in the waiting room while he walks home to gather sticks and light the fire, to make it more welcoming for them.

“This family has little money, barely enough for food,” observes Irmus Varga who distributed Blythswood shoeboxes in Hajdú-Bihar county, eastern Hungary. “Gedeon’s mum is not happy about the holidays because the children miss their school meals. Your boxes are a huge help to families in need.”

Gedeon’s family spent much of the Christmas holiday at the bus station to stay warm.

Sliven's Story

Zhani Slavcheva isn’t easily shocked. She and her husband Stoyan have been serving some of the poorest communities in Sliven, Bulgaria, for many years, bringing the gospel and responding to people’s immediate needs. “We have seen everything,” she says, “poverty, unemployment, misery, destitution, disease and a whole lot of grief.

“But I was shocked when I saw inside the home of Nadya, a 49-year-old Roma lady who is bedridden with diabetes and high blood pressure. Her husband has had a stroke and they survive on state benefits and begging because they are not fit to work.

“Their one-roomed home has no electricity. The toilet outside has no door and they depend on a tap in the yard to wash their dishes and their clothes.”

Zhani explains that despite these hardships, Nadya’s outlook was transformed a year ago when she became a Christian. “Nadya listens to the word of God with hope,” Zhani says. “She prays fervently for her family and for her children.”

“She was very sick at Christmas when we delivered your gifts to her. Despite her illness her eyes shone with joy and surprise when she saw the shoebox. She never imagined that friends from far away would think of her.

“We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for the privilege of being channels of blessing and happiness for someone in need.”

Emil's Story

Fill a box for someone as poor as Emil and it’s hard to go wrong.

Quite simply, he has nothing. Okay, the walking frame which enables him to shuffle along, and the clothes on his back. And that’s it.

The semi-derelict building in which he shelters is owned by the local authority. It lacks heating, electricity or running water.

He lives on the left-overs he finds in bins, or receives from kind neighbours.

Imagine what you can do to brighten his day. A warm pair of socks. Some stretchy boxers. A bar of soap.

A packet of sweets.

A wind-up torch. A woolly hat. It’s not difficult, is it?

And that unique, carefully gift-wrapped box which shows that somebody, somewhere cares.

“We visit Emil every Christmas and give him a shoebox,” says Adrian Popa who distributes boxes in and around Jimbolia, western Romania.

“He is genuinely grateful.”

Krasimir's Story

“I want you to read me this story!”

Eight-year-old Krasimir is in the second grade at school and cannot yet read for himself. But curiosity is a powerful motive to learn and soon he persuades an older sister to read him the colourful book which he discovered in his Blythswood shoebox.

The age-old story of Sarah and Abraham is as relevant to the Roma community in central Bulgaria as it is to family life anywhere. When Abraham’s faith is tested, God provides a ram to take the place of Isaac, pointing to the coming of Jesus, God’s sacrifice for the sins of the world.

Each year Blythswood provides a Bible story book for children, a booklet of Christian testimony for teenagers or a calendar with Bible verses for adults. In 2022 the book for children is the story of Samson, while the teens’ booklet tells the story of Oana, a young Romanian who became a Christian.

Home for Krasimir is one small room which he shares with his parents and his six brothers and sisters. For families like his, every item in a Blythswood shoebox is useful and appreciated.

Margit's Story

Margit peers from her mother’s arms, clutching a shoebox almost as big as herself. The youngest in a family of five children, the wan four-year-old shivers in the winter sun. She has a heart disorder and the partner organisation which distributed your gift-filled boxes makes sure that this family can access medical care as required.

It also runs a charity point with laundry facilities, to which Margit’s mother wheels a pram full of washing each week.

“It’s quite difficult to do the washing for a family of seven by hand,” observes shoebox distributor Andras Berki. “They depend on firewood for heating and have to carry water from a public pump.”

Boards cover broken windows in the family’s village home in central Hungary, and blankets are stuffed in cracks to protect against the cold.

For low-income families like this, Blythswood shoeboxes are full of practical aid such as items for personal hygiene and new clothes, helping them to stay clean and warm.

Andora's Story

Three-year-old Andora was eagerly waiting at the door when Edjola Dalaci turned up at her home with gift-filled boxes for the family in Bathore, Albania. “She opened the box with a smile on her face,” Edjola reported. “Her brother Antonio was sleepy and didn’t want to come out. But his grandmother called him and told him that a gift was waiting for him.

“We can’t describe how amazed he was to find a car in his box. He stared and stared at it. Andora was very happy with a beautiful doll and was caressing it with so much love. They were both surprised to see soap in the shape of a rabbit. Their mum was happy to see a book of drawings for colouring in. Just that week she had been drawing some shapes for that purpose.”

The lorry load to Albania was the last to go from Blythswood’s 2021 Shoe Box Appeal, with some doubt if it would clear customs in time for Christmas. Edjola and her colleagues in Mission Possible Albania were able to obtain warehouse space in Tirana, just in time to receive the boxes on 22 December.

Reflecting on the way in which arrangements came together at the last minute, Edjola wrote: “It is so great to always rely on HIM, the Maker of heaven and earth.”

A month after sending her report on shoebox distribution, Edjola suffered a cerebral haemorrhage and passed away seven days later, on Sunday 20 March. Her colleague Gjergji Como says: “Now she is in heaven with Jesus whom she loved.”