On the eve of the 17th anniversary of 9/11, ten U.S. military couples gathered by the glacial waters of Lake Clark to spend a restorative week (Sept. 2-8) in the Alaskan bush for the penultimate session of Operation Heal Our Patriots 2018. And much like the nearly 140 couples that had already come to Samaritan…
Celebrating God’s Work in Our Military Couples
Army Specialist Shawna Watkins and Army Sergeant Jesse Watkins started dating after serving on combat deployments in Afghanistan. They’d been on the same mission together in 2011 when their convoy was struck by an improvised explosive device, and Shawna was sent flying from atop her vehicle’s gun turret. Next thing she knew she was in…
Age Is No Obstacle for Shoebox Packing
Leila Mae Cummings’ favorite activity is to pack Operation Christmas Child shoebox gifts. This 98-year-old resident of Greensboro, North Carolina, packed hundreds of them this year because she has a heart for children and hard work. “Growing up on the farm, I can’t ever remember a time when I didn’t have a job to do,”…
Newsletter August 2024
Local Christians Use Shoebox Gifts to Help Plant Churches in Remote Mongolia
Highways leading out of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia’s capital city, continue east for many miles as far as the city of Chinggis. From there, the roads diminish to mere gravel paths that stretch across the vast pasturelands of Khenti Province. It’s from Chinggis, where transportation begins to get more difficult, that six churches are praying—paving the way—for…
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Faith Restored
The two Army medics were ready to quit their marriage and had a hard time remembering why they’d bothered applying to go to Alaska with Samaritan’s Purse. Just a couple weeks before Army Sergeant First Class Jason Smith and Army Specialist Amy Smith were scheduled to leave for Operation Heal Our Patriots, they delivered the…
Couples Celebrate the Fourth of July at Samaritan Lodge Alaska
Franklin and Jane Graham welcomed ten military couples to Samaritan Lodge Alaska over the Fourth of July weekend, marking the sixth week of this year’s Operation Heal Our Patriots summer season. “July Fourth is when we celebrate freedom, and freedom is something that you have to defend, because there’s always people who want to take…
Military Couples Strengthened by God in Faith and Marriage
Corporal Derrick Sharpe said he joined the U.S. Marine Corps because he wanted to “be the best of the best, be the first to fight.” “I don’t have a very good, happy kumbaya story. I grew up really poor and all I knew how to do was fight and take a beating, so I joined…