Staff Report A local church is doing its part to help children across the world experience the true meaning of Christmas.

For the past eight years, the Church of Christ at Little has assembled boxes known as “Magi boxes” for distribution to underserved countries. The church says this is a way to show children the love of God during the holiday season.

This year, they met their goal of 100 boxes, which are filled with hygiene items, school supplies, clothing and school supplies.

Magi Boxes are a project of Healing Hands International, a nonprofit that aids, equips, and empowers those in need around the world in the name of Jesus Christ. Before the MAGI Project’s official inception in 1999, it was a ministry started by a woman named Imogene McAnulty, and Healing Hands International simply helped ship and distribute Christmas presents to vulnerable youth abroad. In 1997, they shipped 230 boxes to Romania amid post-Cold War tension.

In a church in Bucharest, Romania, a young man named Vintilla received a MAGI box for the first time in 1998. That gift inspired him to return to the concept of MAGI boxes when he became a preacher as an adult.

In 1999, the MAGI Project was officially established as a program of Healing Hands International. Throughout the years, the MAGI Project has evolved and grown. From shoeboxes to plastic bins to its classic cardboard boxes, the MAGI boxes have consistently brought joy and hope to children all over the world, the organization’s website states.

The nonprofit says it has sent nearly 3,000 boxes to Ukraine since the invasion in 2022, along with emergency relief supplies from the Disaster Response program.