The bike ride through the path of deep sand to Kitomondo takes Pastor Marco Kayumbo more than two hours to negotiate. He prays and sings to pass the time. Kitomondo is a rural community outside Tanzania’s largest city of Dar es Salaam, and it’s where Pastor Marco started a church almost two years ago. It…
Discipleship, Education & Training
Operation Heal Our Patriots Encourages Both Spouse and Injured Warrior
Varalin never anticipated that the impact of her husband’s wartime brain injuries could be so devastating—that expressing any kind of emotion would become nearly impossible for him. “After 13 years of marriage, he still struggles to tell me how he’s feeling,” Varalin said. “He has to choose every day to feign emotion. He doesn’t laugh…
Discipleship, Education & Training
God Answers Prayers to Save a Military Couple’s Marriage
Sean and Brandy Karpf’s teenage romance began one summer as they both worked the late shift at their local McDonald’s. They spent until the early hours of the morning breaking down equipment, cleaning, and closing the store. Some fleeting high school crushes are quickly forgotten, but this one lasted three years and culminated in an…
Operation Christmas Child
Young Central Asian Shepherds Receive Shoebox Gifts
A simple drive through the countryside can become something special. Yusif*, a volunteer leader in Central Asia with Operation Christmas Child, was traveling with several team members to a ministry meeting when he spotted two shepherd boys tending their flock near the highway. Remembering that he had some gift-filled shoeboxes as well as copies of…
Operation Christmas Child
Shoebox Letter Prompts Girl in Mexico to Receive Christ
Jazmin had been longing for a doll of her own. When she received one at age 6 in an Operation Christmas Child shoebox, she thanked God for the gift. “It was very exciting,” Jazmin, now 17, recalled. “It wasn’t only a doll, it was a princess doll. I didn’t have anything like it. I thought…
Operation Christmas Child
Shoebox Packers Go From Devastation to Celebration
She peered through a busted window into the church basement and saw that floodwaters from Hurricane Helene had left a muddy mess. The Operation Christmas Child shoebox gift items that First Baptist Church of Damascus, Virginia, had collected during the year were now wet and filthy. Jaz, age 11, saw something that gave her hope—a…
50 Years of Ministry
Good News and Great Joy for Children Around the World
The summer of 1993, Franklin Graham received a call from England asking if he would fill shoeboxes with gifts for kids in war-torn Eastern Europe. Familiar with the suffering there from his recent visits to the region, Franklin agreed. Around Thanksgiving, his office received another call from England asking about the gifts. Franklin remembered the…
Operation Christmas Child
Twin Sisters Pack Hundreds of Shoebox Gifts
Twin sisters Leabele McLeod and Laralea McLaughlin grew up in a poor family that struggled to make ends meet. They were so thankful any time a friend or neighbor offered them food or other essentials. Now, at age 88, Leabele and Laralea are giving back to children growing up in difficult situations. The sisters have…
Children's Ministries
A Hope That Endures
Bat-Ulzii had lost the will to live. After passing out during a school track and field practice in Mongolia at age 13, he was diagnosed with holes in his heart that would prohibit him from running or even walking without difficulty. He was angry and ashamed about his physical weakness, not having enough energy to…
Operation Christmas Child
Families Learn About Jesus Together in Mexico
As children around the world receive Operation Christmas Child shoebox gifts and are invited to learn more about Jesus Christ through The Greatest Journey discipleship program, many parents are curious to find out what their children are learning. This is especially true if the adults themselves know little about Him. Soon, whole families are studying…
