(PHOTO: THE CHRISTIAN POST/SCOTT LIU)
Operation Christmas Child, the annual holiday outreach event organized by Franklin Graham’s Samaritan’s Purse, shipped off more than 60,000 shoe boxes for young survivors of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines on Thursday, Dec. 12, 2013, at JFK Airport’s Hangar 19 in New York City.
The evangelical humanitarian organization Samaritan’s Purse has exceeded its donation goal of 10 million gift-filled shoeboxes in 2014 in its popular charity program, Operation Christmas Child.
Through Operation Christmas Child, donors from across the United States and 12 other Western countries can donate shoeboxes filled with small age-appropriate gifts that are then compiled and distributed by the ministry to millions of less fortunate children across the world.
Samaritan’s Purse, an organization run by Franklin Graham, the son of world-renowned evangelist Billy Graham, announced this week that it exceeded its global goal for 2014 by receiving over 10.4 million shoeboxes, with over 8 million of them coming from donors in the United States. The shoeboxes will hopefully provide a glimmer of hope to underprivileged children in more than 100 nations.
“The 10 million shoeboxes are being distributed worldwide right now. We are sending these gifts to local churches in more than 110 countries around the globe this year,” Operation Christmas Child’s domestic director Randy Riddle told The Christian Post. “That was our worldwide goal and our global goal: collecting shoebox gifts in 13 countries and sending them around the world. We are very thankful to surpass our global 10 million goal.”
Each shoebox includes a variety of small gifts like toys, school supplies, t-shirts and personal hygiene items. Donors are also encouraged to include personal notes and a photo of themselves.
Along with the shoebox gifts, each child receives an Operation Christmas Child Evangelistic tract. Kids as young as two years old and teens as old as 14 will receive the gifts.
“This is many times the first time that these children have ever received a gift of any kind,” Riddle explained. “Working with our local church leaders, this platform allows us to share the Gospel with children who have never heard about Jesus before, or never had an experience like this before to hear a clear presentation of the Gospel.
“We have Gospel literature that is handed out alongside every shoebox gift and there is typically a verbal proclamation of Gospel with the shoebox gift,” Riddle continued. “It teaches these children that there is someone here on this Earth that loves them and cares about them and has not forgotten them and that there is a God in Heaven who loves them as well.”
Click here to read more.
SOURCE: The Christian Post
Samuel Smith
