Romario grew up in the riverside village of Duatra, deep in the jungle of Suriname, along the eastern coast of South America. As a young child, he knew nothing of Jesus Christ, and there was no church for him to visit. Yet his thoughts kept returning to the idea that there must be a God…
Health & Medical Ministries
Bones Made Straight and Souls Refreshed
Umaru loaded his prized bull up on the bed of a rusted truck and shut the tailgate. He hopped onto the feeble wooden frame surrounding his cargo as the engine sputtered down the road toward a nearby market. It was a big day for Umaru. Selling his cow would not only help purchase new calves…
Operation Christmas Child
A Kite in a Shoebox Gift
A Kite in a Shoebox Gift Helps Start One Girl's Soaring Journey of Faith When a teen in Central Asia received a gift-filled Operation Christmas Child shoebox, the Lord used it to lead her to Christian community and discipleship. Saliha* enjoyed a surprise beyond anything she ever imagined as she opened her Operation Christmas Child…
Operation Christmas Child
Churches Dedicated Among Unreached Himba of Namibia
Update (Sept. 8, 2021): Since this article was originally published in 2019, Samaritan’s Purse has built a second church building in the Himba community of Otutati. Dedicated on February 27, 2021, this facility is an additional outpost of hope to this unreached people group. The Gospel continues to spread among them through the oral resources…
Operation Christmas Child
Missouri Volunteer Motivated by Jesus’ Last Words
Springfield area resident fulfills dream to reach children for Christ through Operation Christmas Child. Jill Cobb of Mountain View, Missouri, does what she does because she’s focused on Christ’s final words on earth, which begin: “Go and make disciples of all the nations” (Matthew 28:19, NKJV). She volunteers as an area coordinator for Operation Christmas…
Operation Christmas Child
Building Church Partners
Dally Quintana serves as the church relations coordinator in Chicago, where she leads a team of volunteers to promote Operation Christmas Child among their congregations. Dally and her husband, Hector, began volunteering with Operation Christmas Child in 2012 and have packed shoeboxes for over 17 years. They started out as project leaders in their church,…
Operation Christmas Child
Evangelism Is Her Passion
Deborah Warner serves as chaplain—as well as school nurse and music teacher for third and fourth graders—at Florida Christian School (FCS) in Miami. In addition to serving as the Operation Christmas Child project leader at her school, she also volunteers year-round as a prayer mobilization coordinator. As the 1,100 students of FCS packed 1,331 shoeboxes…
Operation Christmas Child
Yves and a Scarf
Yves and a Scarf "A stranger loves me? How can that be, when neighbors in Rwanda had tried to kill us?" When my mother was eight months pregnant with me, our neighbors in Rwanda tried to murder us. My father, a pastor, was well-respected in the community. So, it was shocking when those who had…
Operation Christmas Child
Yuliya and a Puppy
Yuliya and a Puppy "The stuffed dog in my shoebox became my new best friend, and I still have it 14 years later." Yuliya received a shoebox at age 9 in a Central Asian country. When I lifted the lid on my purple plastic shoebox, the first thing I saw was a stuffed dog. I…
Operation Christmas Child
Pointing Children to Jesus in Slovakia
Katarina Horvathova used to live a nomadic life. But while she and her son, Daniel, lived in a shelter for a number of years, Daniel had the privilege of receiving a gift-filled Operation Christmas Child shoebox gift. His 8-year-old heart delighted in the toy airplane he found inside because he wanted to become a pilot…
