Another tender moment occurred when Brackin and her group went to the Bright Future Homes orphanage.

“When we started to leave, one little boy came up to me and said, ‘Can I go to America?’” she said. “I had to tell him ‘no,’ but I left a piece of my heart there.”

In addition to distributing gifts at five different locations, the participants worked with the Samaritan’s Purse Uganda office on several water, sanitation and health projects, as well as community livestock programs in and around Kampala, Kamwenge and Masaka.

Since 1993, OCC has hand-delivered more than 94 million shoebox gifts packed with school supplies, hygiene items and toys to needy children living in desperate situations in more than 130 countries around the world.

Uganda began receiving shoebox gifts in 1996. Since then, nearly 685,000 Ugandan children ages 2–14 have received a gift.

Brackin is majoring in elementary education at Jefferson State Community College in Clanton and plans to transfer to the University of  Montevallo to become an elementary teacher.

Going on mission trips was nothing new for Brackin, the daughter of Wayne and Cindy Brackin and member of The Church at Bethel in Thorsby, but this one was different and special.

“I’ve always wanted to go give out shoeboxes,” Brackin said. “Some of the children had never gotten a gift before. I wanted to give them out because of how much I’ve been given.”

Brackin said the most important thing she learned is how much God lovers her and how big God is everywhere all the time.

“We gave out about 2,000 boxes,” Brackin said. “I wish I could go do it again.”

Grant is the OCC Volunteer Media Relations Coordinator in the Birmingham Area.