If Vanua Levu isn’t the end of the Earth, it’s close. Rugged and isolated, the slender island is located 1,100 nautical miles northeast of New Zealand in the South Pacific, just east of the Coral Sea. It’s one of the 330 specks on the map that make up the Fiji archipelago. Ignored by most of…
Our Ministry
Franklin Graham Dedicates New Midwest Ministry Center
Today, Samaritan’s Purse President Franklin Graham welcomed hundreds of guests to our Midwest Ministry Center in Aurora, Illinois, to dedicate the new property to the Lord’s service. The 116,000 square-foot facility will serve as a staging area for our disaster relief operations in the region while also housing a permanent Operation Christmas Child processing center.…
Operation Christmas Child
Treasures in the Trash
Koshe dumpsite in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, contains mountains of trash. Some families who live near it are left to scale its slopes daily in search of salvageable items to provide for their sons and daughters. What toys these precious ones have were once on the trash heap. Samaritan’s Purse recently delivered Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes…
Operation Christmas Child
By Volunteering, She Became a Prayer Warrior
“Prayer is such a central piece of Operation Christmas Child. It supports all parts of the organization. It’s that underpinning to make sure everything else runs smoothly,” said Nancy Osborn, prayer coordinator for the Maine West team of year-round volunteers in the Portland area. A resident of Falmouth, Maine, Nancy works full-time as an inventory…
Operation Christmas Child
From Oklahoma with Love
Doris Row started packing Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes on her ranch in Tishomingo, Oklahoma, in 1995 after her 13-year-old son died at Christmastime the year before. She was determined not to live in grief, but to do something good to help overcome it. She chose to begin packing shoebox gifts for children in need around…
Operation Christmas Child
Making Disciples in Mongolia
Light, sky, land, and water appeared out of nothing. Next came vegetation, animals, and mankind. God called forth all these things simply by speaking, “Let there be…” (Genesis 1). While the story of creation may sound familiar, it is an entirely new concept for many boys and girls in Mongolia. At Living Stone Church in…
50 Years of Ministry
Delivering Christmas to Children in Uganda
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…
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…
