The week’s Feel-Good Friday is perfect for the day after Christmas. It highlights the wonderful ministry of Samaritan’s Purse’s “Operation Christmas Child,” where local churches in over 100 nations fill shoeboxes with toys, school supplies, and other fun items; the organization’s team then hands out the gifts at festive outreach events where the Gospel is preached in a way children will understand. I always give or participate in charitable drives during the holidays, but Operation Christmas Child is by far my favorite.
Even when I was dirt poor I was able to participate fully with Operation Christmas Child and it felt good to be able to give, even out of my own lack. Trinkets from a dollar store, which some American children would sneer at, are gratefully received by a child overseas, so there was no embarrassment about the expense (or lack thereof) of what I was able to give. It’s not just a simplicity to it, but a purity as well.
For one Filipino child, her life was changed when she received the shoebox from a family in Idaho with a picture of their little boy inside. Nine years later, Joana Marchan, now a teenager, made a decision to seek out Tyrel Wolf, the boy in the photo, who was 18 years old.
God-ordained appointments is the subject of this final Feel-Good Friday of 2025.
People Magazine first profiled Joana Marchan’s story in 2014.
It all started in 2000, when Wolfe, a then-7-year-old in Midville, Idaho, helped his parents pack Christmas shoebox gifts for children in the Philippines. The project, run by Operation Christmas Child through Samaritan’s Purse, involved filling the shoeboxes with school supplies, toiletries and small toys.
As part of the project, each shoebox-packer had to include a photo with their gift. Wolfe slipped in a photo of himself in cowboy gear against a rustic mountain background. He gave the shoebox to his aunt, who dropped it off at church.
For almost a decade, he never gave it a second thought.
The picture is not really required; it’s a recommendation. What is not recommended is supplying an address, but the Wolfes chose to do it anyway. Marchan wrote the family a thank-you note, but unfortunately, it was lost in the mail.
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While Wolfe didn’t give it another thought, Marchan remained curious about that boy in cowboy gear and the life that he leads.
Then, one day in 2009, Wolfe, now 21, got a Facebook friend request from a Joana Marchan. Not knowing who she was, he ignored the request. Two years passed. She then sent another request in 2011. This time, he was curious. Wolfe messaged Marchan asking her how she knew him.
When she replied, she told him about the shoebox gift that had meant so much to her. Wolfe asked his mother, Denise, who reminded him he had taken part in the charitable activity as a boy.
[…]
“I was curious as to what he was like now,” Marchan tells PEOPLE. “Was he going to college like me?”
They started communicating over Facebook and found they shared a lot of common interests such as listening to Christian music and religious faith.
Marchan and Wolfe kept up their correspondence for several more years. At this point, Wolfe decided to take an unprecedented step. After graduating high school, he took a trip to the Philippines to visit Marchan.
By May 2013, after graduating from high school, Wolfe had saved up enough money working for his dad as a trail-and-bridge builder for state parks and flew to Quezon City, a suburb of Manila in the Philippines, for 10 days.
“I knew I was taking a big risk,” Wolfe tells PEOPLE. “I had never traveled alone, let alone to a foreign country before and I was meeting people I didn t know or even knew really existed.”
Wolfe spent the entire flight feeling nervous, anxious and excited all at the same time.
“When I finally got there and saw her, I had to punch myself a couple times because I thought it was a dream,” Wolfe says. “I was immediately attracted to her.”
She felt the same way.
As the old song goes, this was the end of a beautiful friendship, but the beginning of a beautiful love. Marchan and Wolfe stayed in touch through Facebook and Skype, and after several months, Wolfe traveled to the Philippines again to visit Marchan and her family. But this visit he asked her father’s permission to marry her. Dad agreed, but mom was not on board, feeling they were too young. Another old expression: third time’s a charm. On the next visit, Wolfe’s father decided to travel with him.
Wolfe didn’t give up. After some convincing, his father, Ivan, 44, bought a plane ticket, and in May 2014, took a 10-day trip to Manila to meet Marchan’s family.
During his visit, Wolfe recalls, Marchan’s mother went up to his father and said: “You are a sign from God that we are allowing Tyrel and Joana to marry. If you had not come, we wouldn t have let the relationship continue.” The families celebrated by throwing an engagement party.
Fast forward a year later. Marchan and Wolfe’s story was featured on the local Idaho news.
WATCH:
What a beautiful testament to not just God’s love, but this couple’s giving heart.
Ten years later, Joana and Tyrel are still going strong, pursuing marriage, family, and God’s best plan for their lives. This 2023 video from their YouTube channel reflects the deepened love and growth they’ve been able to share with each other and with others. Joana and Tyrel are representative of God’s perfect gift of love in the birth of the Savior, and a reminder that when we give, we reap a harvest that is bigger than we could ask, think, or imagine.
It’s not too late to plan for 2026 Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes or to become a volunteer for their year-round work in this endeavor. Visit the Samaritan’s Purse website for more information.
Editor’s Note: At RedState, it’s not all about politics and policy. We like to bring attention to what’s good in the world, with columns like “Feel-Good Friday,” “Start Your Weekend Right,” and “Hoge’s Heroes.”
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