GRAVETTE — A Gravette teen, Justin Barfield, helped spread an early spirit of Christmas this summer when he and a group of teens visited Bolivia as volunteers with Operation Christmas Card.
Barfield, 18, who is the home-schooled son of Cindy and Todd Barfield and will be attending Northwest Arkansas Community College, saw first hand the results of a project he is passionate about and which he has worked so hard to promote.
For the past nine years, ever since the young man was younger than 10, Justin and his family have packed shoe box gifts as part of the Samaritan’s Purse project, Operation Christmas Card. They have been advocates and volunteers for the project in the Gravette area.
“You’ll see pictures and videos about how some of the kids down there are so happy (when they receive the shoe box gifts), but until you’re actually with them, you don’t really know what happens there,” Barfield said. “These are kids who come from rough backgrounds, poor families, who have no access to the Gospel in any way.”
Serving in and around La Paz, Bolivia, a city of more than 2 million people, Barfield and 19 other youth from the United States distributed over 600 gifts to needy children in the towns of Isla dePatapatani, Panpachiliya, Puerto Perez, Tacanoca and Cachilya. The team also helped with church construction and a livestock program, immunizing llamas and alpacas.
Since 1993, Operation Christmas Child has hand delivered more than 77 million shoe box gifts packed with school supplies, hygiene items and toys to children living in desperate situations around the world. The project of the international relief organization Samaritan’s Purse, Operation Christmas Child is the world’s largest Christmas project.
“Anybody can do this (send shoe box gifts),” said Barfield. “And it does work — it does change lives.”