A Father’s Struggle Considered the poorest family in their village, Chheng and his loved ones were often looked down upon by the community. For Chheng, a husband and father to nine children, the need to provide a stable income was dire, but finding a good job in rural Cambodia seemed impossible. “My family was so…
From Oklahoma with Love
Doris Row started packing Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes on her ranch in Tishomingo, Oklahoma, in 1995 after her 13-year-old son died at Christmastime the year before. She was determined not to live in grief, but to do something good to help overcome it. She chose to begin packing shoebox gifts for children in need around…
Great Joy in Mexico’s Jungles
Las Tres Huastecas region, along the Gulf Coast in Mexico, is hard to reach and isolated from much of the country. Many residents still speak the native language, Nahuatl, and worship indigenous idols. The few churches that preach the Gospel here are met with disdain and uncertainty. Earlier this year, however, at a small school…
Shoebox Gifts Bridge the Divide
Shoebox Gifts Bridge the Divide Shoebox Gifts Bridge the Divide God used prayer and Operation Christmas Child shoebox gifts to help reconcile a believer to his estranged family. Today he is no longer the only Christian among them! Ibrahim* grew up in a rural village in Burkina Faso. The local community highly respected his family because…
A Shoebox Gift Filled A Hole in His Heart
When people tell Karabo Maretlane he’s lucky, he says, “I’m chosen.” Karabo grew up in a village in the southern African nation of Lesotho. When he was 5 years old, his father died and his mother left him with his grandmother. As this elderly woman raised him, she taught him how to read, write, and…
Empowering Rural Villages to Help Mothers and Children
In the town of Gmomaken’s not-too-distant past, it was always their local herbalist that the families turned to with worries over fertility or for remedies to ensure the safe birth of a child. They would seek him out for alarming pregnancy pains and complications. They visited his darkened thatch-roofed hut in the center of town,…
Fact Sheet: Children’s Heart Project
Healing Hearts, Finding Jesus
For more than 25 years, Children’s Heart Project has arranged for critical cardiac surgery for more than 1,500 boys and girls from over a dozen countries where such operations are not readily available. “The goal is to demonstrate God’s heart to these children and their families that need heart surgery,” said Daniela Acosta with Samaritan’s…
Newsletter June 2024
Military Couples Honor the Fallen as 11th Summer Season Begins at Samaritan Lodge Alaska
Nine military couples from across the country arrived at Samaritan Lodge on Sunday to be greeted by flag-waving staff, volunteers, and town residents under clear blue skies. It was a picture-perfect start to the 17-week summer season. This marks the start of the ministry’s 11th year of seeing wounded veterans and their spouses grow in…