Samaritans Purse

The street has been nicknamed Dark Street for many years. Lost in the slums of Papua New Guinea, locals knew Dark Street for its nightly gun battles between young people and the police. Mothers would lay awake listening and wondering if their older children would come home, and how many more minutes before the baby woke again from the noise.

Recently, Pastor Magi shared how for generations clans fought against other clans, passing on their hate for the individuals and families of the rival clans. The hate is so deep that the children grow up believing that if they talk to their enemy they could be killed themselves. (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…)

In the shadow of an imposing Buddhist monastery, hundreds of students spend hours each day focusing on their schoolwork. They sit on sturdy chairs behind wooden desks, and their teachers instruct them with new blackboards and other supplies.

Just a few months ago, none of the parents in this Myanmar village dreamed their children would ever have an opportunity for a quality education.

Their previous ramshackle school building was blown apart by Cyclone Nargis’ winds last year.

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Who would of thought that Jack and Jill walking up a hill, could inspire a movement of children to fetch a pail for others.

Forget bringing in your latest action figurine, ten-year-old Cooper Winter’s class had their eyes opened when he decided to give Show and Tell with a twist.
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Every 20 seconds, one child in our world dies from water-borne illness. This would wipe out a whole primary school class – every 10 minutes.

This is one of the reasons why we are working hard to provide clean water to hundreds of needy communities around the world. Through Turn on the Tap we are intensifying our efforts to provide safe accessible water. A big thank you to each and every one of you who have already participated in the campaign.

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Dear Friend,

I know you’ll join me in celebrating the fantastic news that 303,921 children in the Asia Pacific region have been given their very own Operation Christmas Child shoe box. – Read the full story

Logistically, so many things need to come together for this program to be a success. Every link in the chain is crucial. So thank you for everything you did to make this amazing project possible! 

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Update on Hmong Refugee Children

You’ll be pleased to hear that Samaritan’s Purse supporters have provided over $40,000 so far to help care for 1,500 Hmong children living in a refugee prison camp in northern Thailand.

One of these children is Chai, a nine year old boy who is an orphan. His father and mother were killed along the Thai border five years ago. Today ‘home’ is a camp in Northern Thailand where he lives behind high fences, razor wire, and armed guards with other Hmong refugees who are prisoners in Northern Thailand.

(more…)

Turn on the Tap is a global campaign launched by Samaritan’s Purse to provide access to safe water for communities in Asia and Africa. The following story shows how Samaritans Purse water projects are transforming lives in Cambodia. 

Mey Sen is a weary grandmother with deep wrinkles etched into her dark skin after years of gruelling work as a subsistence rice farmer. She provides for three grandchildren while their parents work in Phnom Penh and return only once a month to visit.  

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It’s difficult to imagine life without readily available, clean water. But for thousands of people in nations like Cambodia, Vietnam and Papua New Guinea it’s not as easy as turning on the tap.

I am always encouraged by the testimonies of how something as basic as a well, or even one simple water filter, can dramatically improve the lives of so many people. (Click here to read Mey Sen’s story)

Already thousands of water filters for people in Southeast Asia have been distributed through Samaritan’s Purse. I have seen these filters and they are very simple with no moving parts so they can’t break down. 

What I have learned through being involved with Samaritan’s Purse is that we all have a responsibility to address poverty, and we don’t need to feel helpless. Your prayers and gifts for Samaritan’s Purse make a big difference!

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

Operation Christmas Child

Too 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. 

Operation Christmas Child is often the first step in bringing help and hope to a child in need. Our local churches and partners find these innocent victims and provide long term assistance such as aid, health care, housing, clean water, sanitation and education.

Read Pov’s Operation Christmas Child story.

Education

Education is critical to breaking the cycle of poverty. However, many children in poor countries do not get access to school. In Cambodia alone, 10 percent of children do not attend primary school and only one third continue through secondary school.

The educational projects of Samaritan’s Purse help communities build schools, train teachers and purchase supplies. Educating children builds hope and gives a reason to believe that there can be a different tomorrow.

Read Toul Prasat’s story.

Health, HIV & AIDS

Tragically, an estimated 5 million people in Asia were living with HIV in 2007. Around 380,000 died from AIDS-related illnesses that year, with the same number newly infected. Countless other health issues from maternity deaths to physical disabilities also affect hundreds of thousands of people each year. 

Read about Nikki.

Community Empowerment, Livelihoods and Livestock

Samaritan’s Purse provides Bible-based training for emerging leaders to increase their ability to address problems and create self-sustainable communities. This enables these leaders to run grassroots projects that share God’s love in practical ways such as health and nutrition, education, small business and housing.  One such example is a Women’s Small Business Support program started after the tsunami in Amirthakali, an impoverished Sri Lankan town.

Read more
 

Water & Sanitation – Turn on the Tap

One child dies every 20 seconds from diseases related to drinking dirty water. Samaritan’s Purse is committed to changing this appalling statistic by improving quality and access to water by providing wells, rainwater harvesting solutions, BioSand Water Filters, health and hygiene programs and training. 

Read about BioSand in Indonesia.

As you may know, for every Operation Christmas Child shoe box that is provided, Samaritan’s Purse requires $8 to cover warehousing, transport and critical training programs for national teams in the countries that receive and then distribute the shoe boxes.

This past Christmas, however, we struck upon an unexpected challenge. Due to the financial crisis and increasing distribution costs, our local partners in the receiving countries (churches and community groups) asked us for an additional $94,000 to deliver the boxes to the children. 

We prayed earnestly for God’s provision for our partners and we were astonished at the generous response. 

We are thrilled to report that within just a few weeks, we received $110,000!

This was a wonderfully encouraging response and demonstrates how deeply committed many of  you are to the children and families who are served through Samaritan’s Purse, and also to our local partners who are so crucial to carrying out our projects.

We are thrilled to report that through the joint efforts of thousands of individuals, 303,921 children in the Asia Pacific region received an Operation Christmas Child shoe box from Australia and New Zealand!

“This is so cool!” said Timothy as he opened his shoe box and excitedly showed his mother all the gifts inside. “I won’t have to buy many school materials now because I got some in my box!”

Timothy’s mother, like many others in Fiji, is facing increasing hardship. She was extremely grateful to see each of her five children given a shoe box from an unknown friend in Australia or New Zealand.

‘I want to say thank you to God for this present. And thank you to the person who sent it without knowing who would get it. I love it!’ – Timothy

“God has taken away some of the burden of parents by providing Christmas gifts for their children through these boxes,” said the High Chief of one Indian community in Fiji. “There were tears of happiness not only among the children, but also among the adults.”

“I want to say thank you to God for this present,” said Timothy. “And thank you to the person who sent it without knowing who would get it. I love it!”

Pastor Bill Page shared about the distribution at his church in Papua New Guinea. “It was amazing!” said Pastor Bill. “Our team gave out 7,600 shoe boxes. We also distributed boxes to the squatter settlements and villages.

“We were blessed to have Steve Grace, the Gospel singer who grew up in Papua New Guinea, with us while we distributed the boxes. The children were delighted to hear Steve’s songs.”

In Cambodia, a further 66,246 boxes were distributed. “There was an incredible sense of excitement on the day of the distribution,” described Phary, a local Sunday school teacher.

“When the shoe boxes came out and the children realised the gifts were especially for them, there was pandemonium!”

Stama was one of the children who received a gift. “I like the letter they wrote to me,” she said. “They said they prayed for me. I feel very happy and proud because we never get presents – but today we did!”

Later, Phary asked her students how they enjoyed their day. “We will remember today for a very long time,” they said.

“The gifts were a reminder that people around the world love them,” said Sok Bunthen, Assistant Pastor at God’s Family Church in Phnom Penh. “We hope that through these gifts the children will come to know the love of Jesus and the true meaning of Christmas.”

On behalf of children like Timothy and Stama, thank you for your support of Operation Christmas Child this year.

Whether you filled a shoe box with gifts, gave an additional gift to help our partners with the extra in country costs (click here for whole story), prayed for the project or volunteered to get the boxes ready for delivery -  thank you!

See also: Generous Donors Assist Local Partners to Deliver OCC Shoe Boxes

For video footage from the first 2008 shoe box distributions in Cambodia view the new Turn on the Tap video (after 4mins 34seconds)