Three-year-old Josh* could not contain his excitement when he found out he was going on his first mission trip. “We are going to El Salvador,” he announced at his church in British Columbia, Canada. “Daddy is going to work on teeth and we’re going to tell people about Jesus!” The Eliason family—Garth and LeeAnne, Josh,…
God Is Transforming Lives and Healing Marriages through Operation Heal Our Patriots
Retired Army Staff Sergeant John Hosea and his wife Sara know that every day and every breath are gifts from God. On June 9, 2012, John’s armored vehicle ran over a roadside bomb in Afghanistan. The resulting blast blew the truck 27 feet in the air, killing the driver instantly. John was severely wounded. That…
Media
Fact Sheet: Operation Heal Our Patriot
Operation Heal Our Patriots What Operation Heal Our Patriots is a project of Samaritan's Purse designed to strengthen the marriages of wounded and injured members of the U.S. military. The project includes a weeklong wilderness retreat at Samaritan Lodge Alaska, which provides physical and spiritual renewal to wounded veterans, active-duty service members and their spouses.…
Discipleship, Education & Training
The 2019 Operation Heal Our Patriots Summer Season Started Memorial Day Weekend
Sunday afternoon nine U.S. military couples arrived at Samaritan Lodge Alaska to be greeted on the local gravel runway by a long line of excited townspeople and staff waving American flags. One participant, Army Specialist Sean Goetz of Cedar City, Utah, said of the experience, “It’s just overwhelming—the patriotism. I’m speechless. I’m just privileged to…
Our Ministry
Journey to a New Heart
If you’d seen Francis play with his friends in the early days of his illness, he would have seemed like many other little boys living in Uganda. He loved airplanes, admired Spider-Man, and was known to be a little stubborn—a trait he got away with by making those around him laugh. But there was something…
Animals, Agriculture & Livelihoods
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…
Health & Medical Ministries
Mother, Daughter Receive Christ After Surgery
Khaliunaa didn’t just fear death, the thought of eternity filled her with dread. The Mongolian mother believed that no one could be good enough to go to Heaven and that eternal damnation was everyone’s fate. The prospect of her daughter, Tserendulam or “Dulma” for short, dying young from a heart defect diagnosed at birth sent…
Animals, Agriculture & Livelihoods
Beekeeping Project Lifts Families in Kenya Out of Poverty
When Samaritan’s Purse staff met David, he was struggling to provide for his wife and two children in their poor village in Kenya. He worked hard as a farmer, but it wasn’t enough to keep the family out of poverty. “I had lost hope of educating my children,” David said, as he couldn’t afford their…
Feeding Programs
Fleeing from Boko Haram
Editor’s Note: Names have been changed throughout this article to protect identities. In the Diffa region of southeastern Niger, there is little sound. Apart from the side-to-side rocking of the moving Land Cruiser and subtle shifting of sand in the wind, the sun beats down on a sparse landscape largely devoid of movement. Motorcycles are…
