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…
Operation Christmas Child
A Young Girl Comes to Faith and Family Follows
When Athena was 8 years old, she received a gift-filled shoebox through Operation Christmas Child. Living in an impoverished area of the Philippines, the young girl had never received such a present. Athena began to learn about how much God loves her when she read The Greatest Gift, a Gospel story booklet Samaritan’s Purse developed…
Crisis & Disaster Response
Thanking God for a New Home at Christmas
It’s almost unbelievable that Earnestine Reese survived the EF4 tornado that barreled through Lee County, Alabama, on March 3, 2019—killing 23 people, leveling neighborhoods, and displacing families. As the storm hit, she huddled in her bathroom with her daughter, son-in-law, and grandson, praying for God’s protection. The twister tore directly over their house, ripping off…
Animals, Agriculture & Livelihoods
Planting Seeds of Faith in Famine-Scarred Niger
The lean season was once a season of despair for many families in Karofane, a village in rural Niger. Halima,* a mother of ten, would watch hopelessly as her children grew thin and weak. Their hair would turn brittle and bleached—common signs of malnutrition. “I would take them to the traditional healer, but still they…
50 Years of Ministry
Rebuilding Homes for 5,000 Families After Hurricane Mitch
Hurricane Mitch was the worst storm of the 20th century in the western hemisphere, killing over 11,000 people in Honduras and Nicaragua in 1998. The late-October storm destroyed or damaged more than 80,000 houses in Honduras. Samaritan’s Purse launched the largest construction project in our history and in the four years following the storm, we…
Crisis & Disaster Response
Helping Homeowners After Flooding in Spain
Our Disaster Assistance Response Team is hard at work in eastern Spain after the region received over a foot of rain on October 29, causing the Magro and Turia river basins and the Poyo canal to overflow. The flash flooding claimed the lives of over 200 people and an unknown number are still missing. As…
Operation Christmas Child
A Kite in a Shoebox Gift Helps Start One Girl’s Soaring Journey of Faith
Animals, Agriculture & Livelihoods
2024 Year-End Report
Thank You Hurricane Helene Sudan Operation Christmas Child Brazil Beryl Mexico 2024 Year‑End Report Thank You Millions of people worldwide have been devasted by natural disasters, poverty, famine, and war and desperately need physical relief and the hope of Jesus Christ. Samaritan's Purse is reaching hurting families while also letting them know they are not forgotten…
