ALLENTOWN, Pa.- For Alyona Van Winkle, a simple shoebox filled with toys and small gifts became much more than a Christmas present. At a time when she was struggling with unimaginable loss, it offered her something she desperately needed… hope.

“When I opened the shoebox, it felt like a chest of gold being opened,” Van Winkle recalled.

Her story began in a small, impoverished village in Ukraine, where she experienced more heartbreak as a child than many face in a lifetime.

At just nine years old, she lost her father. The following year, her mother died after struggling with alcohol. Unable to care for her, her paralyzed grandmother could not take her in. Van Winkle then went to live with her sister, who was seriously ill.

After just a few months, her sister also passed away, leaving Van Winkle without her immediate family.

“I was really struggling with understanding why all these horrible things were happening to me as a young child and why I was going through them,” she said.

Eventually, Van Winkle found herself living in an orphanage. Amid the uncertainty and grief, small acts of kindness began to change her life.

One caregiver took the time to speak with her about Jesus and offered to pray with her after Van Winkle shared a recurring nightmare that had troubled her for months.

“That was the first time somebody ever prayed for me,” she recalled.

When she woke up the next morning without the nightmare for the first time, she said she became curious about Jesus and wanted to learn more.

Later that year, around Christmas, a woman who worked in the orphanage’s kitchen invited her to attend a church event. There, Van Winkle and the other children were lined up in two rows before a set of closed doors.

When the doors opened, they were greeted by a wall filled with red and green shoeboxes.

Van Winkle received one of the boxes through Operation Christmas Child, a project of Samaritan’s Purse that distributes gift-filled shoeboxes to children around the world.

Inside were toys, new items, and a small white stuffed lamb that became her favorite gift. For a child who had lost so much, the box carried a deeper meaning.

Just before receiving it, Van Winkle had learned that her grandmother had died.

“When I received that shoebox, it felt like it was God’s personal gift to me,” she said.

By the end of 2007, Van Winkle was adopted and brought to the United States to begin a new chapter with her adoptive mother.

When she attended her new mother’s church, she recognized the familiar red and green shoeboxes. She shared her story, and the two began packing shoeboxes together as a family.

After graduating from college in 2018, Van Winkle reconnected with Operation Christmas Child and became a speaker, traveling to share her testimony and the impact one small gift had on her life.

Now, she hopes her story will encourage others to participate in the program and help children facing difficult circumstances around the world.

“If you have not packed the shoebox, get involved, pack a shoebox,” she urged.

“One shoebox can impact a child in such an amazing, powerful way.”