Jamyleth’s life changed for good when she was an 8-year-old girl living on a farm in Riobamba, Ecuador. It was then she received a gift-filled Operation Christmas Child shoebox. “I was very excited,” Jamyleth, now 22, recalls. “I had received presents from my parents before, but nothing like the shoebox. My favorite thing in the…
Thinking Locally—and Globally—with Operation Christmas Child
Ben Smith knows the power of a good story and the difference it can make in people’s lives. Hearing stories about how Operation Christmas Child helped bring the Gospel to children around the world fueled his involvement in the Samaritan’s Purse project from the very beginning. As a child, he packed shoebox gifts with his…
Shanika & Sherika and the Mittens
100 Million Shoebox Gifts Collected
Evilyn Pinnow, a then 12-year-old from Wisconsin, traveled more than 5,000 miles across the United States collecting items to place inside Operation Christmas Child’s symbolic 100 millionth shoebox before she headed to the Dominican Republic to place it into the hands of a precious child in need. In California, friends of the ministry added socks…
Family Resources
Focus on the Family Our friends at Focus on the Family put together this video about one family’s tradition of packing shoebox gifts with Operation Christmas Child. How can you start a shoebox tradition with your own family? Explore our resources below! 7 Ideas for Family Impact Pack shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child…
Shoebox Gifts Encourage Venezuelan Migrants in Colombia
Well more than 2 million Venezuelans have left their nation over the past few years, many fleeing to neighboring Colombia. They’re leaving because the situation in Venezuela is bleak—with runaway inflation, increasing crime, and critical shortages of food and medicine. As the economy collapses, families simply can’t afford to eat. Some Venezuelans go back and…
Mission and History
Mission and History
Growing Faith and Local Gardens in Northwest Liberia
For the first time in her life, Teter Washington learned the importance of churning up the soil before applying fertilizer, and she’s learned the technique of growing plants in bags filled with water and nutrients. These simple improvements to her farming practices have produced higher quality and higher quantity harvests. And this increase in her…









