Samaritans Purse

Working through a network of 20 churches, Samaritan’s Purse distributed three tons of food to earthquake survivors in Concepcion, Chile, on Wednesday. Concepcion has been put under a strict curfew, but our team has been given special permission to work during restricted hours.

Concepcion, the second-largest city in Chile, is about 70 miles from the epicenter of the massive 8.8 magnitude quake that hit Saturday. A member of our Operation Christmas Child National Leadership Team has purchased food in a neighboring area and is delivering it to Concepcion for distribution Thursday. We are coordinating with missionaries in Santiago to secure more food for residents who lost everything in the disaster. (more…)

Pastor John lives in the remote village of Kalo in Central Province, PNG. In 2006, our local partner, Living Light Foursquare Church of Port Moresby took 200 Operation Christmas Child boxes and distributed them through Pastor John. News of the shoe boxes drew people in and excited children came from villages all around.

The Port Moresby church then helped the village build a church… and then they put in a water pump. This transformed life for the village in a whole new way. (more…)

Click to see how your gifts are changing lives around the world.

Operation Christmas Child

Many innocent children are caught in poverty and hostile environments, trying to survive while constantly at risk of being exploited. Samaritan’s Purse is there to offer compassion assistance and protection. (more…)

As you may know, we ask for a donationwitheveryshoeboxtocover warehousing, transport and critical training programs for our indigenous partners who receive and distribute the shoe boxes.

This past Christmas the donations fell short and we prayed earnestly for God’s provision from our supporters and we were astonished at the generous response. Within just days, we received over $70,000!

This was a wonderfully encouraging response and demonstrates how deeply committed you are not only to the children and families who are served through Samaritan’s Purse, but also to our local partners who are so crucial to carrying out our projects. Thank you!

Tatenda Makuni, a 19-year-old girl from Zimbabwe, is passionate for Operation Christmas Child for more than one reason. As a seven year old in Zimbabwe, Tatenda received her very own shoe box!

Today she is a student at the University of Western Australia. She shared her story with our warehouse volunteers when she was volunteering in the warehouse with friends from her uni… (more…)

Just before Christmas 2009 Operation Christmas Child was able to ship 306,408 gift filled shoe boxes to children in Cambodia, Fiji, PNG, Samoa, Thailand, Vanuatu and Vietnam.

We have already begun receiving reports from the filed on this year’s distribution… like this one report from the first distributions in Papua New Guinea:

“After driving for another hour (from the first distribution outside of Port Moresby) we entered the jungle then arrived at the end of the road. The team from the Living Light Foursquare Church carried the boxes on their shoulders and eventually made it to the river’s edge where there was a dingy with a motor and we piled the boxes into the boat and began the journey up the river that wound back and forth. (more…)

Over the last few weeks we have been overwhelmed by the financial support that has flooded in to support the people of Haiti. To date, we have raised over $110,000 to provide relief and support to victims of the earthquake there.

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Samaritan’s Purse teams are working with local churches to deliver emergency relief supplies to earthquake victims.

Samaritan’s Purse teams are working with a network of pastors to distribute critically-needed relief supplies for victims of the massive earthquake that rocked Haiti last week.
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The distances and efforts that are made to get these boxes to children are always amazing. To think that any one of these shoeboxes tells a story of the heart of the people packing them, then that box travels from them, to Samaritan’s Purse warehouse, to the shipping yard, then overseas on a long journey, then onto the partner church, then down a long and winding road, through a jungle, down a river, then more jungle and finally into the hands of one very important child!
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As of December 16, 2009 we have shipped a total of 306,408 gift filled shoe boxes to children in Cambodia, Fiji, PNG, Samoa, Thailand, Vanuatu and Vietnam. Please continue to pray for our indigenous partners as some of these are still being delivered over the next few weeks! Our indigenous partners go to extreme lengths to get these boxes into children’s hands.
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Dear Friend,

When I wrote to you in May expressing genuine concern about a shortfall in our funding, never did I expect the outpouring of support that friends like you selflessly provided. I have been truly humbled by your generous support.

Thank you for your prayers, for your continued belief in our programs and for your truly generous gifts. I know that your support has come from the heart, for it is the heart – and the strength of God – that encourages us to lift up the lives of those in desperate need.

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Q: Why does Samaritan’s Purse need an $8 donation for every shoe box?
A: The amount of $8 or more per shoe box (which is fully tax-deductible!) helps cover the shipping and program costs. It also helps to cover things like warehousing, transport, training programs for national teams in each one of the countries that receive the shoe boxes, as well as in Australia and New Zealand. Most of the countries receiving boxes also need financial assistance to cover duties, importation costs and transport to enable the boxes to reach each child.

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Kingborough Family Church has always had a strong attitude of giving to Operation Christmas Child. Its enthusiasm and dedication to the shoe box appeal has seen the number of shoe boxes increase from 50 to 250 in just two years. What an incredible achievement!

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Thanks to the immediate response of our generous donors, the future of our projects in South East Asia is now secure. To date, over $470,000 has been raised.

Thank you for giving above and beyond our expectations – we truly appreciate that you have such a deep and abiding commitment to our mission!

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Shoe boxes from Australia and New Zealand have been delivered throughout Fiji since 2005. Earlier this year we were able to help the local churches in Nadi to assist the victims of the January floods. The relationships that we have through the National Leadership Team (NLT) for Operation Christmas Child was critical in making the aid possible. In January the floods covered the ground floor buildings and in some cases all the way up to the eves.

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