Growing up in an orphanage in Russia, Yulia Fearing had almost nothing that belonged to her. Even her toothbrush, she shared with four or five other children.

“In the orphanage, you had to share toothbrushes, toothpaste, underwear, socks, everything is shared,” Fearing said. “… Because to an orphan, nothing belongs to you.”

But when she was four-years-old and 12-years-old, Fearing received two gifts that changed her life: shoeboxes from Operation Christmas Child, a project of the humanitarian aid organization Samaritan’s Purse. The shoeboxes contain toys, essentials and evangelical Christian messages for underprivileged children.

Fearing said the first box she received from the organization replaced the tennis shoes she had, which were falling apart, with hot-pink tennis shoes.

“I did not have shoes that fit me,” Fearing said. “I had shoes that had holes in it, that didn’t fit me, that were falling apart. And in that box I received a pair of shoes and they were the perfect size for me.”

The second box, Fearing received when she was 12-years-old. At that point, she said, she had almost given up hope on being adopted, since she was getting older.

But her box contained a letter and photo of the family who had packed it, saying she was loved, and offering a return address so she could write back. Fearing said she is still in contact with the family who sent her second box to this day.

The second box, she said, also came with a half-English half-Russian Bible, though the book “made no sense” to her until much later in life, when she converted to Christianity.

At 13-years-old, Fearing and her sister were adopted by an American family and brought back to Texas. At church in her new home, she saw OCC from the other side for the first time.

“They were packing shoeboxes and I saw those red and green shoeboxes and I … was amazed,” Fearing said. “… I tried to tell my parents– again, it was Google Translate and everything that I was using– but they finally understood that I had received those boxes. And they were like, ‘oh, yeah, this is what we do.’ And they made it sound so simple.”

Ever since, Fearing said, she has been participating in OCC from the other side in some form or fashion every year, which she said feels “unbelievable.”

For two years, since moving to Columbus Air Force Base with her husband Peter and her children, she has been encouraging Main Street Presbyterian Church in its packing efforts.

Bess Swedenburg, a life-long member of Main Street Presbyterian, said hearing Fearing’s story pushed her and others in the church to increase the number of boxes they pack each year.

“It all took on different meaning,” Swedenburg said. “To hear her talk about what those little – what seemed to be insignificant – boxes meant to her as a child in an orphanage, we got excited. Then, we started doing more.”

Swedenberg said she and her church group, the Happy Hearts, packed about 80 boxes during a packing party, motivated by Fearing’s story. She said the number of boxes the church packed overall also grew.

Last year, Fearing said, the entire church packed about 130 boxes, but this year, the church collected about 270 boxes.

After packing the boxes, church members arranged them into a giant Christmas tree in the center of the church sanctuary, covered in traditional tree decorations. The tree was about 8-feet tall, once all the boxes were stacked.

On Monday, the tree was disassembled, as Fearing and other volunteers packed all of the boxes onto a trailer to bring to First Baptist Church, which acts as the collection center for the southeastern region of OCC, including about 200 churches from West Point, Starkville, Columbus and more.

Rachel Smith, a volunteer team leader with OCC at FBC, said she has participated in the shoebox program for as long as she can remember, but three years ago, she started facilitating the collection of the boxes for the church as a way to participate in a global ministry.

“A lot of people think it’s just about stuff in boxes,” Smith said. “And that’s great, these kids love the stuff in the boxes. You can see the videos and see their faces and they are very excited… but the point is that the gospel goes with each box too.”

Smith said FBC volunteers pack the boxes into cartons to be taken to a processing center in Atlanta for sorting and distribution. This year, Smith said, about 29,885 boxes were collected by FBC and delivered to Atlanta.

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