Update (Sept. 27): Samaritan’s Purse continues work in Vidor and Winnie, Texas. In Vidor, we have our Team Patriot volunteers serving for the first time on a disaster relief mission. Team Patriot is a brand-new initiative that offers Operation Heal Our Patriots couples—wounded military veterans and their spouses—an opportunity to serve U.S. homeowners after a…
Team Patriot
Volunteer Perseveres in Leadership Despite Challenges
After spending 24 years as a special agent in the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Kathy Aiken found a different calling. Today, Kathy serves as an area coordinator for the Operation Christmas Child East Alabama Area Team. Based out of Talladega County, Kathy leads a team of volunteers that promote shoebox packing year-round. “I feel like…
Strong Finish in Georgia
Multiple twisters with winds up to 150 miles per hour tore through Spalding County in mid-January, damaging more than 2,000 properties in the Griffin area. Just two days later, Samaritan’s Purse set up a base camp at Oak Hill Church in nearby Williamson. This past Friday (March 17), our U.S. disaster relief team completed more…
Delivering Christmas to Children in Uganda
In late 2002, Franklin Graham gathered with musician Bono (of U2) and the Brooklyn Tabernacle Youth Choir at New York’s JFK International Airport for a special send-off. More than 80,000 Operation Christmas Child shoebox gifts were loaded onto an Antonov 225, the world’s largest cargo jet at the time, to be transported to Ugandan children…
Volunteer at a Drop-off Location (es)
Discipling Boys and Girls through The Greatest Journey
After 16 years of collecting and delivering Operation Christmas Child shoebox gifts, Samaritan’s Purse launched its own follow-up discipleship program for the boys and girls who receive them. In 2009, this 12-lesson course called The Greatest Journey started at Good Shepherd Church in Pifo, Ecuador, located just outside of Quito, and today has grown to…
Veteran Couple Finds Forgiveness, Freedom in Christ While in Alaska
Army Corporal Hamilton Kinard’s 15-month deployment to Iraq was a turning point in his military career. At age 19, he had joined the military “to make my dad happy. I hadn’t done much with my life up to that point and I wanted to make a difference. I wanted to help somebody.” In 2005, as…
Christian Radio Trip Giveaway Terms and Conditions
Deploying Military Couples to the Frontlines of Disasters
At the 2019 Operation Heal Our Patriots Reunion in Dallas, Texas, we invited military couples to join our U.S. Disaster Relief efforts as part of our new Team Patriot project. Since the first Team Patriot teams deployed in August of last year, Samaritan’s Purse has sent more than 100 individuals to serve again on the…