Pastor Rick and his team knew it would be tough—physically and spiritually—to reach the remote village they had been lifting up in prayer. To share the Good News of Jesus Christ there, the group had to scale steep mountains, cross rivers full of rocks and stones, and push through dense bamboo and vegetation. Their journey…
Operation Christmas Child
Operation Christmas Child Is Bringing the Hope of the Gospel to 1,000 Pacific Islands
Rengesuul Yobech sat in the shade of a spacious open-air gymnasium at Peleliu Elementary School in Palau on a sweltering late-February afternoon earlier in 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic swept the globe. The school’s 76 students were assembled there, eager to receive gift-filled shoeboxes at the first Operation Christmas Child festive outreach event to take…
Operation Christmas Child
God Uses Shoebox Gifts to Grow a Church in Cambodia
Gift-filled shoeboxes are packed for children, but they influence entire families and communities. They even help start and grow churches, like Seed of Faith in Cambodia. When their Pastor Ponleu* got involved with Samaritan’s Purse and hosted Operation Christmas Child outreach events, the Good News of Jesus Christ began changing the boys and girls who…
Operation Christmas Child
Bringing Hearts to Christ in Cambodia
Hands clasped, heads bowed, children whisper their first words to the Creator they’ve just learned about. This moment of solemn surrender happens at tens of thousands of Operation Christmas Child outreach events across the globe each year. Watching one such prayer in his home country of Cambodia was especially meaningful to a boy named Samay*.…
Operation Christmas Child
A Sign of God’s Love
The Gospel message wasn’t clear to Zahira until it was presented to her in her own language—a dialect of sign language the Cuban girl uses in the Dominican Republic. At age 14 she was invited to an Operation Christmas Child outreach event led by a local church that has a ministry to the Deaf community.…
Health & Medical Ministries
Boy Finds a Best Friend in Jesus
Nico was diagnosed with a heart defect as an infant in Bolivia. By age 8, he was experiencing fatigue, a loss of appetite, and shortness of breath. That made it harder for him to concentrate on his homework or participate in physical education with his friends. “I always felt tired when I was at school,”…
New Hearts, New Purpose in Mongolia
At first glance, Erdembayar seems like an ordinary 12-year-old boy. He enjoys participating in physical education class at school with his friends as well as riding horses and cooking Korean food, fried rice, and cakes. But up until three years ago, he didn’t have energy for any of these things. For years previously, Erdembayar had…
Operation Christmas Child
The Life-Changing Power of Prayer in Cambodia
As smiling volunteers place red-and-green shoeboxes into the waiting, outstretched hands of children who have no concept of a gift or the love of Christ, a man wearing a shirt bearing the logo of Operation Christmas Child quietly watches with a look of reflection on his face. “Each time it captures my heart when I…
Operation Christmas Child
Bringing the Good News to an Island Off Ivory Coast
The island of Vridi Ako is a largely forgotten place, even though it is located just a short distance from Ivory Coast’s largest city, Abidjan. Accessible only via a 30-minute ride aboard a makeshift wooden ferryboat, Vridi Ako is home to a wide variety of ethnic groups. The one common denominator on the island is…
