{"id":243264,"date":"2023-06-29T14:47:32","date_gmt":"2023-06-29T18:47:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.samaritanspurse.org\/?p=243264"},"modified":"2024-09-09T15:41:48","modified_gmt":"2024-09-09T19:41:48","slug":"zacs-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/samaritanspurse.org\/es\/operation-christmas-child\/zacs-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Zac&#8217;s Story: Coming Full Circle from Fiji"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Zac and a Jump Rope<\/h1>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"video1\" id=\"video1\" style=\"position: relative; display: block;\">\r\n    <div>\r\n        \r\n                <div class=\"video1\" id=\"video1\" style=\"position: relative; display: block;\">\r\n                    <div style=\"padding-top: 56.25%;\">\r\n                        <iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/players.sardius.media\/82aD088d0aAbEF4\/dotorg\/asset\/6312924286112\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"encrypted-media\" style=\"position: absolute; top: 0px; right: 0px; bottom: 0px; left: 0px; width: 100%; height: 100%;border:0;\"><\/iframe>\r\n                    <\/div>\r\n                <\/div>\r\n                <noscript>\r\n                        <div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video<\/div>\r\n                <\/noscript>\r\n    <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<noscript>\r\n    <div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video<\/div>\r\n<\/noscript>\r\n\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n<div class=\"flex-container\">\r\n\r\n    <div class=\"text\">\r\n        <br>\r\n        <p> <em>\u201cSomebody thought of me.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n        <p>Zac and his four siblings grew up playing with sticks and stones in his home country of Fiji. They played with what was available because exchanging gifts wasn\u2019t common in their culture. And, for the family of seven, they couldn\u2019t afford extras. Necessity was the mother of invention as neighborhood children would play rugby using empty soda bottles.<\/p>\r\n\r\n        <p>His family lived near a river that flooded each year during the rainy season. Zac\u2019s father, who was a pastor, and several men from the church routinely had to go down river to fetch pieces of their church\u2019s structure that had been swept away in the downpour and try to reattach the pieces. <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n        <p>But Zac\u2019s parents stayed faithful to God and relied on Him to provide for their needs. Zac credits the power of prayer as making it possible for him and his siblings to attend school, because otherwise his parents wouldn\u2019t have been able to afford it. But, somehow, God always provided what was needed.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<!--\r\n        <aside class=\"pquote\">\r\n            <blockquote>\r\n                <p>\"I didn\u2019t deserve forgiveness because I\u2019d done something wrong. That really touched my heart.\"<\/p>\r\n            <\/blockquote>\r\n        <\/aside>\r\n-->\r\n\r\n        <h2>The Gift of a Shoebox and So Much More<\/h2>\r\n        \r\n\r\n        <p>Zac placed his trust in Jesus Christ as his Savior at age 5 at a revival camp meeting in his grandmother\u2019s village. Four years later, he received an Operation Christmas Child shoebox gift during a special event at church. <\/p>\r\n\r\n        <p>His mom oversaw the shoebox distribution, calling the names of the children invited from the community first, before the regular Sunday School participants. Zac\u2019s name was last to make sure that the other kids had received gifts. While Zac was initially a little worried that the gifts might run out before she got to him, the spirit of celebration going on as his friends opened their gifts caught his attention.<\/p>\r\n\r\n        <p>The joy in the room was infectious, he recalled. \u201cLove, joy, excitement\u2014receiving a shoebox teaches these virtues and so many more,\u201d he said.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n        <p>When it was his turn to open his box, the first thing he experienced was the clean, fresh smell of everything inside. He even recalls the crisp smell of the pages of a coloring book he received. <\/p>\r\n\r\n        <p>\u201cThe coloring book had Bible stories in black and white that were brought to life when you put colors in them,\u201d Zac said. <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n        <aside class=\"pquote\">\r\n            <blockquote>\r\n                <p>\"The coloring book had Bible stories in black and white that were brought to life when you put colors in them.\"<\/p>\r\n            <\/blockquote>\r\n        <\/aside>\r\n\r\n\r\n        <p>He was overjoyed to receive school supplies, such as pencils and crayons, as well as a jump rope that he could share with his family and friends. He also received toy cars, which he made dirt tracks for around the outside of his house. He couldn\u2019t believe it as he pulled one toy after the other from his box. His favorite item was a yellow yo-yo. He had seen them in stores but always had to leave them behind because something like that was financially out of reach.<\/p>\r\n        \r\n        <p>\u201cTo receive your own toy like that was a jaw-dropping moment,\u201d he said. It was so precious to him that he gave it to his grandmother each day for safekeeping while he was at school and kept it close beside him at night. He looked forward to being able to play with it each day after school. <\/p>\r\n        \r\n        <p>One day, Zac returned home to find that his grandmother had lent the yo-yo to his cousin.<\/p>\r\n        \r\n        <p>At first, Zac was upset. But then he realized that he needed to learn to share out of the blessings that God had given him.<\/p>\r\n        \r\n        <p>\u201cTo me, the yo-yo was more than plastic and string,\u201d Zac said. \u201cIt was a seed that a family from the U.S. gave so God could sow that seed of love into my heart.<\/p>\r\n        \r\n        <p>\u201cI used to be a kid on the other side of the globe who received a shoebox. I\u2019m a living, walking testimony to what you all are planting.\u201d<\/p>\r\n        \r\n        <aside class=\"pquote\">\r\n            <blockquote>\r\n                <p>\"I used to be a kid on the other side of the globe who received a shoebox. I\u2019m a living, walking testimony to what you all are planting.\"<\/p>\r\n            <\/blockquote>\r\n        <\/aside>\r\n        \r\n        <h2>A Shoebox Recipient Comes Full Circle<\/h2>\r\n        \r\n        <p>When Zac came to the U.S., he looked up local shoebox drop-off locations from the list online at samaritanspurse.org\/occ so that he could participate in packing shoeboxes. After years of service in the U.S. Army, he became a children\u2019s and youth director as well as the project leader for Operation Christmas Child at his church. <\/p>\r\n        \r\n        <p>When he saw his youth group packing shoeboxes, he cried \u201cbecause everything came to a complete circle,\u201d he said. <\/p>\r\n        \r\n        <p>\u201cI know I\u2019m someone impacting a person on the other side of the globe when I\u2019m packing a shoebox because I was one of those kids,\u201d Zac said. <\/p>\r\n        \r\n        <p>\u201cOur mission\u2014evangelism, discipleship, and multiplication\u2014is where my heart is,\u201d he said about Operation Christmas Child. \u201cPacking a shoebox may look like a little thing, but it\u2019s very impactful. It\u2019s the footprint and fingerprint of God. It shaped me and continues to shape kids around the world. I am one of many hundreds of millions who received that evangelism, discipleship, and multiplication message.<\/p>\r\n        \r\n        <p>\u201cNow, I\u2019m part of that discipleship, that sowing and reaping for the Gospel of the people around the world who don\u2019t know Christ.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n    <\/div>\r\n\r\n    <div class=\"flex-container-column\">\r\n        <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s3.theark.cloud\/sp-comm-arkfiles\/website\/images\/occ-adventure\/img\/2264US-A-402-Zac-Vakadewatabua-web.jpg\" alt=\"Zac with his shoebox\" style=\"width:100% !important;\">\r\n\r\n        <div class=\"category\">\r\n            <div class=\"category-inner\">\r\n                <h2 style=\"margin: 0 auto!important;text-align: center;\">Shoebox Adventure Quiz!<\/h2>\r\n                <a class=\"take-quiz-again\" href=\"https:\/\/samaritanspurse.org\/es\/operation-christmas-child\/the-shoebox-adventure-quiz\/#refresh-container\">Toma el quiz<\/a>\r\n                <a class=\"read-more-stories\" href=\"https:\/\/samaritanspurse.org\/es\/operation-christmas-child\/shoeboxstories-2021\/\">Lee otras historias sobre cajas de regalos<\/a>\r\n                <br>\r\n\r\n            <\/div>\r\n\r\n        <\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n    <\/div>\r\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zac and a Jump Rope Please enable Javascript to watch this video \u201cSomebody thought of me.\u201d Zac and his four siblings grew up playing with sticks and stones in his home country of Fiji. They played with what was available because exchanging gifts wasn\u2019t common in their culture. And, for the family of seven, they [&hellip","protected":false},"author":103,"featured_media":243266,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[256],"class_list":["post-243264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-operation-christmas-child","tag-occ","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/samaritanspurse.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/samaritanspurse.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/samaritanspurse.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samaritanspurse.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/103"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samaritanspurse.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243264"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/samaritanspurse.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":254792,"href":"https:\/\/samaritanspurse.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243264\/revisions\/254792"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samaritanspurse.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/samaritanspurse.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samaritanspurse.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samaritanspurse.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}