In the town of Gmomaken’s not-too-distant past, it was always their local herbalist that the families turned to with worries over fertility or for remedies to ensure the safe birth of a child. They would seek him out for alarming pregnancy pains and complications. They visited his darkened thatch-roofed hut in the center of town,…
Brick by Brick
“The people from our community are hungry for the Word of God,” Pastor Eusebio said, standing on the unfinished second floor of his church in El Alto, Bolivia. The city of almost a million people spreads out around him in all directions, full of people he hopes will come to know the saving love of…
Warming in Koyuk
Operation Heal Our Patriots 2022 Special Report
Andy Castillo’s Story: Rescued by God
Andy Castillo, Operation Christmas Child regional director for North and Central America, was interviewed during a recent trip to his native Honduras. He and his team took part in several festive outreach events while there. You became involved in full-time ministry, and specifically children’s ministry, in a unique way. How did that come about? Castillo:…
An ‘Angel’ Returns Home
When Hurricane Michael struck the Florida Panhandle in 2018, entire communities were demolished and hundreds of families were displaced from their homes by the Category 5 storm. Tina Belcher, lovingly referred to as “Miss Angel” by those in her community, was one of many struggling to recover in the ensuing chaos. For more than 30…
Providing a Pipeline for a Community’s New Start
The small fishing village of Sweetings Cay on the eastern end of Grand Bahama island was told to evacuate quickly as Hurricane Dorian tore a path toward them in early September 2019. Dorian had grown into a violent Category 5 storm. The hurricane ripped buildings from their foundations and swept people and belongings out to…
Mid-Year Report
They No Longer Call Her Cursed
Editor’s Note: Joni Byker, Country Director for Samaritan’s Purse Liberia, recently visited ELWA hospital where Samaritan’s Purse surgical teams provided corrective surgery to cleft lip/palate patients in Monrovia, Liberia. She wrote this moving account. The work that we are able to do here in Liberia is not without its challenges. Daily we are faced with…
Meet the People of Guidan Gado
Auta’s skin is dark and taut with valleys of worry and determination etched into her forehead. She is 58, and her husband died three decades ago. She sits on a small rock outside her home in a village in Niger, West Africa, and holds a wiggly granddaughter as she speaks. Around her, she sees a…