Tucked in along the Tennessee River between Nashville and Memphis sits the quaint town of Clifton, Tennessee. This town of just over 2,000 people is home for Jane Marie Franks—a 16-year-old high school junior with big goals. In the last two years, she’s rallied her community to pack over 1,000 Operation Christmas Child shoebox gifts…
Operation Christmas Child
Young People Play Vital Role in Suriname’s Shoebox Outreach
Suriname bills itself as the greenest country in the world, boasting forests cover 93 percent of its land. Wherever you turn, from the coastal capital to the dense inland jungle, it’s true that the nation seems to burst forth with innumerable flowers, bushes, vines, and trees. Such vibrancy seems to characterize the Operation Christmas Child…
Operation Christmas Child
200 Millionth Shoebox Gift Celebrated in Charlotte
Samaritan’s Purse President Franklin Graham encouraged volunteers and staff at the Charlotte Processing Center in North Carolina during a community celebration event on Dec. 3. He expressed thanks to volunteers in Charlotte as well as the thousands of volunteers working in seven other processing center locations across the country to prepare shoebox gifts for international…
Operation Christmas Child
Celebrating 50 Million Children Discipled
“Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God” (Mark 10:14). Children are precious to God. The Bible tells us that “children are a gift of the LORD” (Psalm 127:3) and that we are responsible to train them up “in the way [they] should…
Operation Christmas Child
Flowers Become Blessings Through Samaritan’s Purse
Jaci Snowden loves flowers. “Flowers make me feel close to God,” Jaci said as she cut colorful zinnias in her backyard garden for a bouquet. “They are His wonderful masterpieces created in Christ Jesus for a purpose.” For 10-year-old Jaci, part of that purpose is to grow beautiful flowers, arrange them into delightful bouquets, and…
Operation Christmas Child
From Wyoming to the World with Love
Jana Ginter lives on the southeastern plains of Wyoming, 30 miles east of Cheyenne, a place where golden wheat fields stretch in almost every direction to the far distant horizon and where acres of sunflowers glow in the late-summer sun. Here, “next-door” neighbors live several miles apart, separated by spacious farms and cattle ranches, most…
Operation Christmas Child
Building Toy Cars to Help Build God’s Kingdom
Ken Postema lives in Western Michigan, about 15 miles east of Grand Rapids, on 10 wooded acres that he purchased 51 years ago when he was a senior in high school. Tall white pines, maples, tulip poplars, and hybrid poplars dot the lush, rolling landscape surrounding Ken’s beautifully handcrafted house, which he built himself. “Some…
Operation Christmas Child
Celebrating 30 Years of God’s Faithfulness
Over 4,000 people from 112 countries and all 50 states converged on Orlando last week to give God the glory for His faithfulness over 30 years of Operation Christmas Child. Everyone praised God for providing more than 200 million shoebox gifts for children in need since 1993 and for the 50 million boys and girls…
Operation Christmas Child
Q & A: Gospel Opportunities in Paradise
Meet Ravina Kumar, national discipleship coordinator for Operation Christmas Child in Fiji. She is one of 6,100 people globally who volunteer on National Leadership Teams to guide our efforts in evangelism, discipleship, and multiplication within their respective countries. Read on to learn more about how the ministry is advancing the Gospel in the Pacific through…
Operation Christmas Child
She’s Got a Passion for Sharing Christ Through Shoeboxes
The first thing you notice about 24-year-old Amanda Urgolites is her smile—bright, warm, welcoming, continual. That’s not so unusual, you might say. But Amanda’s radiant smile is all the more remarkable because she has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS), a rare and incurable collagen deficiency disorder that causes her ligaments to stretch and malfunction. Her bones dislocate…
