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“I want to take a thousand islands in the next five years and reach these islands for Christ,” said Franklin Graham, president of Samaritan’s Purse. “Here in the Pacific, people have very little hope. These are poor areas. People don’t comehere. There are no tourists here. But we are going to be here. We are going island to island to island taking the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

“When Dad went to visit there(after Typhoon Yutu) and saw the carnageand island life in the Pacific, he realized they needed the hope of Jesus Christ and thought Operation Christmas Child had the right resources to be able to tackle the problem,” said Edward Graham, son of Samaritan's Purse President Franklin Graham. “It is a huge challenge. It goes back to Bob Pierce (the founder of Samaritan's Purse) and the God-room principle. You plan so boldly and so big that it's sure to fail without God intervening. Dad's vision was just that.”

“In Acts chapter 1, Jesus gives us the Great Commissionto be His witnesses and to go to the ends of the earth, and we're a part of that,” said Jim Harrelson, vice president of Operation Christmas Child. “Being here in Tarawa just reminds us all what a privilege and opportunity it truly is to be a part of thisworldwide movement. We're fulfilling Scripture and that's powerful.”

“It’s exciting that we had people pouring into the local church,” said Tyler Mahaffey, Operation Christmas Child’s regional manager for the Pacific, of an outreach event in Tarawa. “We barely had space to seat all the kids and parents were cramming in to hear the Good News. We’re thankful for the opportunity to see the church overflowing.”

“It’s not just a shoebox,” said Marshall Islands resident Katie Suderno. “We’re talking about souls being saved, communities changing, and, in our case, an entire island being impacted for the Lord.”