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!
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!
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.
In 2008 one of the more than 300,000 boxes collected from Australia and New Zealand was given to Pov who lives in the village of Viel Thom in Cambodia.
“I’ve never gotten a gift like this before,” said six year old Pov. “I like the stuffed animal the most,” she added, pulling the stuffed gorilla tightly into a hug.
With an unstoppable grin on her face, Pov carefully looked through the contents of her shoe box stopping to inspect a pencil case filled with pencils and erasers and pens.
“I will use this for school,” she said. “I like it so much.”
Pov’s parents, poor rice farmers, would never have dreamed of giving a gift like that to their daughter. Yet on the day of the distribution, Pov could not contain her excitement.
Because of Operation Christmas Child Samaritan’s Purse has been able to provide many other basic needs in Viel Thom over recent years such as water filters through local partners, a school for the children of the community, and support for the village’s men.
Your gifts and prayers truly do make a difference!
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!
Click image to see how your gifts are changing lives around the world.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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)
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