Program is 'so much more than a shoebox'

Lejla Allison does not consider it an overstatement when she says a shoebox saved her life.

She was 11 years old, living in the village of Dubrave, Bosnia, at the height of the Bosnian war in 1992.

"I was cold. I was hungry. I was miserable. I wanted to die. We were suffering," Mrs. Allison said.

She sought refuge in a school, hoping to find relief from the cold. What she found, though, was shoeboxes. Stacks of them. A man explained that he, and the boxes, had come in the name of Jesus.

Lejla opened hers to find a new pair of sneakers. They promptly replaced the ones on her feet, which had been tethered together with wire.

"That box changed my life. Somebody did love me. All I had seen was war. And these were people I didn't even know," Mrs. Allison said.

"That shoebox was so much more than a shoebox."

Nearly 16 years passed before Mrs. Allison became a spokeswoman for Operation Christmas Child, the ministry that delivered her shoebox and millions others every year to children worldwide.

Mrs. Allison's is touring the United States to tell how, in 1993, she received one of the organization's first boxes. She will speak Friday at Macedonia Baptist Church on Wrightsboro Road.

Today, Mrs. Allison lives in Pennsylvania as a certified nursing assistant.

In Bosnia, she met and married an American contractor working on a military base. They have two children.

"I'm so grateful the life I've been given," Mrs. Allison said.

She hopes that by speaking of her experiences, more Americans will choose to take part.

"So many people have been packing these boxes for years, and they've never heard the stories," Mrs. Allison said. "They don't know how much it matters."

Last year, 8,000 Augusta area residents packed 15,000 shoeboxes, said Gary Lawhead, Augusta's Operation Christmas Child Collection Center coordinator at Warren Baptist Church.

This year, the region is aiming to pack 18,000 boxes by the end of the national collection week, Nov. 15-22.

Most boxes include a toothbrush and toothpaste, soap and a washcloth, a notebook and pens, candy and a few small toys.

Boxes also include a comic book in a native language, which details the biblical creation story and the life of Jesus.

Mrs. Allison says she remember hearing about Jesus for the first time the day she received her box.

"My mother asked me where I got the new shoes, and I remembered the man said, 'These boxes come in the name of Jesus Christ,' " Mrs. Allison said.

"I told her some man named Jesus who lives in America gave them to me.

"God was real and answered my prayers that day."

Reach Kelly Jasper at (706) 823-3552 or kelly.jasper@augustachronicle.com.