Abiakwa’s world had been growing darker for years. Her vision had been failing in one eye since she was very young, and in recent years it had finally closed behind clouds of scar tissue. Her parents had always told her it began when she fell off the unattended cassava mortar, a very large wooden cauldron…
Crisis & Disaster Response
Hungering for More
Five million Venezuelans have fled their own country since 2015. Nearly 2 million have entered Colombia. Scroll for More Samaritan’s Purse is there to provide food and shelter for those who’ve left everything behind. Hungering for More: Helping Venezuelan Migrants in Colombia Colombia Relief 014041 $ Give Hope Desperate need drives this historic exodus. Many of the migrants are…
Operation Christmas Child
Processing Center Season Photos
Processing Center Season These photographs are available for news media outlet use in coverage of Samaritan's Purse-related stories. If your news outlet uses a photograph, please credit: "Courtesy of Samaritan's Purse." These photographs are not for commercial use. Processing center staff and volunteers pray over cartons of inspected shoebox gifts before they leave the warehouse. Volunteers…
Operation Christmas Child
Alina and a Music Box
Alina and a Music Box Alina received her shoebox at an orphanage in Romania at age 12. When I was just over a year old, doctors told my mother that I would never be able to walk. Not knowing how to care for me, my mother left me in a hospital. Thanks to doctors and…
Operation Christmas Child
Nanor and a Doll
Nanor and a Doll "God planted a seed of faith in my heart when I received my shoebox." Nanor received a shoebox in the Middle East as a child. I will never forget the day that I received my shoebox. I still remember every gift in it. I’ve kept the box to this day. It…
Operation Christmas Child
Watch “The Record with Greta Van Susteren” on Newsmax TV for an Operation Christmas Child Special
Greta Van Susteren of Newsmax TV was in Ecuador this past weekend with Operation Christmas Child. Together with Wheaton College students, she distributed gift-filled shoeboxes to dozens of kids—spreading Christmas joy—as local church partners shared the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Van Susteren will air an exclusive feature on this child evangelism project on Christmas Day.…
Operation Christmas Child
Opening Eyes and Ears in Ecuador
Nestled in the mountains of the Pichincha province of Ecuador, Pastor Segundo Santacruz leads a large church that meets in a very small building. “Amor a la Vida” (Love for Life), as the congregation is called, reaches out to the Quechua community around them in a variety of creative ways. They provide food for their…
Operation Christmas Child
‘The Lord Loves Even His Enemies’
In a small town on the plains of Central Asia, most people are hostile to the small group of Christians living among them. Though these courageous believers are continually harassed, they faithfully persevere. Two Christian women named Aigul* and Dinara* were meeting regularly to pray for their town. Persecution flared up when Aigul’s mother died.…
Operation Christmas Child
Children in Madagascar Hear the Gospel for the First Time
Pastor Soja knew that there were two words the Bara people group never wanted to hear: “Jesus” and “prayer.” Made up of more than a million people, this ethnic group inhabits southern Madagascar, the island nation off the east coast of Africa. Cattle rustlers by trade, they marked themselves by thievery, violence, and isolation. Fifteen…
Operation Christmas Child
An Operation Christmas Child Shoebox Gave Hope to an Orphan in Honduras
Yuri Lopez grew up in 14 different orphanages in Honduras, after being separated from her family when she was 2 years old. Her life seemed hopeless. But when she was 6, Yuri received an Operation Christmas Child shoebox gift and “experienced hope for the very first time,” she said. “Everything in my shoebox was special,”…
