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 Darkness to Light
Words by Operation Christmas Child Edited by Jenny Baxter The street has been nicknamed Dark Street for many years. Lost in the slums of Papua New Guinea, locals knew Dark Street for its nightly gun battles between young people and the police. Mothers would lie awake listening and wonder if their older children would come home, and how many more minutes before the baby woke again from the noise.
Recently, Pastor Magi shared how for generations clans fought against other clans, passing on their hate for the individuals and families of the rival clans. The hate is so deep that the children grow up believing that if they talk to their enemy they could be killed themselves.
But Magi says, “When we got the [Operation Christmas Child] boxes, we brought all the kids together, put them into age groups and gave them boxes. We make them swap them around because we want them to know that they are friends. Then we let them open them. We teach them that now you have shared a box it means that you can share everything. The boxes lay down a good bridge for us and they have brought down walls in the community."
As a consequence of the shoebox swap, people's attitude to each other has changed and they want to live differently. “For many years this was called ‘Dark Street’ so we asked the government to put electricity in," says Magi. "The government said ‘No’ but I said, ‘It’s no more Dark Street’. It took three months of advocacy for the community and then the government put electricity here. It’s not a ‘Dark Street’ anymore – now we call it ‘Light Street’.
“Now the mums say, ‘I can sleep well. The baby can sleep well until the morning’.”
We are thankful we can partner with people like Pastor Magi through Operation Christmas Child who work hard to bring light into the darkest places – replacing crime and neglect with joy and reconciliation. And your partnership with us is helping to bring about these incredible changes.
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