After floodwaters washed through Aretha Robertson’s neighborhood, an army of Samaritan’s Purse volunteers showed up at her Wisconsin home to help salvage mementos and remove waterlogged belongings. “From the second that they stood on my grass, it felt warm,” she said. “It made me feel like it was going to be OK.” Aretha had faced…
Health & Medical Ministries
Saving the Lives of Heart Patients in Kenya and Beyond
An orphan named Kopokok was rushed to Tenwek Hospital from a drought-stricken corner of Kenya. His body was ravaged by rheumatic heart disease as well as a lack of food. Dr. Agneta Odera, a young Kenyan surgeon, hurried Kopokok into the operating room to receive a new heart valve. Kopokok was one of the first…
Operation Christmas Child
Zac’s Story: Coming Full Circle from Fiji
Zac and a Jump Rope Please enable Javascript to watch this video “Somebody thought of me.” Zac and his four siblings grew up playing with sticks and stones in his home country of Fiji. They played with what was available because exchanging gifts wasn’t common in their culture. And, for the family of seven, they…
Discipleship, Education & Training
A Hurting Marriage Begins to Heal from the Wounds of War
He’d been good with a gun since he started hunting at age 8 and was a hard-driving athlete during high school, so for Nick Hine the rigorous life of a Marine Corps scout sniper seemed like a good fit. He wasn’t interested in college just yet, so when he was 18 years old he joined…
Operation Christmas Child
Boun and Flip-Flops
Boun & Flip Flops Please enable Javascript to watch this video Boun Thorne got a glimpse of God's love when she received an Operation Christmas Child shoebox gift as a child. Boun Thorne grew up in a boat village in the Southeast Asian nation of Cambodia. In the aftermath of a terrible situation, she moved…
Crisis & Disaster Response
What DART Means to Me
APPLY NOW FOR THE DISASTER ASSISTANCE RESPONSE TEAM Four years ago, when Hurricane Irma hit the Caribbean, my wife and I were living on the island of Antigua. It was at this time when I first learned about the Samaritan’s Purse Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART). We were amazed at the talent, speed, and godliness…
Operation Christmas Child
Gospel Light Drives Away the Darkness for a Boy and His Father in Togo
Tchao Beleyi used to be haunted by nightmares of people chasing him down to beat him. “When I would sleep, in my dreams, I would see people following me, pursuing me,” he said. His 9-year-old son Kevin was also troubled. “He used to steal money from us,” Tchao said. “If he saw money lying around,…
Operation Christmas Child
Nadia and a Doll
Nadia and a Doll "As a Christian from a low-income family in Ukraine, I saw my shoebox gift as an answer to my mother’s prayers. " While growing up in Ukraine I lived in a three-bedroom apartment with my family of 11. Toys were rare in our neighborhood. I remember one of my neighbors showing…
Operation Christmas Child
Good News and Great Joy Delivered—by Shoebox—to a Teen in Mongolia
When Dariya, 13, of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, received an Operation Christmas Child shoebox gift in February, it interrupted her life with joy. ‘They Told Us About Jesus’ Dariya lives in an apartment in the Mongolian capital with her grandmother, Bebe Bakhpit, and 10-year-old cousin, Hannah. Her parents are divorced, and her mother works in South Korea—often…
Operation Christmas Child
Texas Teen Crochets for Girls Around the World
During National Collection Week two years ago, Alathia Purtell formed what even she thought was an impossible dream—to produce 2,000 crocheted purses for Operation Christmas Child shoebox gifts. Alathia, then 12, was visiting her maternal grandparents in Canton, Texas, when she went with her grandmother Sue to her church’s shoebox drop-off location. There, Alathia saw…
