GOOD NEWS AND GREAT JOY FOR ORPHANS AND CHILDREN IN POVERTY

Transcription

1 SAMARITAN'S PURSE UPDATE JULY 2017 OPERATION CHRISTMAS CHILD SPECIAL EDITION GOOD NEWS AND GREAT JOY FOR ORPHANS AND CHILDREN IN POVERTY At age 9, Mya* was diagnosed with HIV. In her rural village in Myanmar, there is little access to medicine and medical care. HIV also brought fear of the unknown to Mya s family, and they worried the village would shun her. So, Mya went to live at an orphanage in the city. Mya didn t know why she was sent away until she arrived at an orphanage just for Burmese children with HIV. I met Mya and children from the orphanage when they attended an Operation Christmas Child distribution. The Burmese children who received shoeboxes rarely receive gifts of any kind. She told me that her mum died of HIV, but she didn t know the cause of her mum s death until teachers at the orphanage told her. Mya has never met her dad. With the help of a translator, Mya shared her story with me, but I think she could have done well on her own. She knows a lot of English, and I could tell by the way she shared an occasional smile with the translator that she understood many of my questions. She s bashful, but she ll get there. In fact, the teenager wants to be a translator when she grows up. Mya, who loves to laugh and smile, is hopeful. Operation Christmas Child also helps encourage children like 12-year-old Cho* who lives with his grandmother and two younger siblings. I met Cho during the same shoebox distribution. Cho is a softspoken, polite, sweet child who enjoys playing soccer. His mother lives and works in Singapore. Cho s father works at a factory and lives with Cho s other grandmother so he can help take care of her. It s hard for his grandmother to provide for Cho and his siblings, and they live in a poor village. Cho and his siblings rarely receive presents and certainly nothing like the new gifts and toys in their Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes. Cho isn t bitter, and he doesn t complain. He wants to be a pastor when he grows up so he can tell... CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

2 GOOD NEWS AND GREAT JOY FOR ORPHANS AND CHILDREN IN POVERTY CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1... other people about Jesus. I pray Cho remains steadfast in his resolve to live for Jesus. I pray God uses him, even now, as a child, to share the Gospel. "[Cho] wants to be a pastor when he grows up so he can tell other people about Jesus." Mya isn t facing her future with anger, either. She s determined and isn t letting fear steal her dreams. Mya and Cho have already endured much hardship in their young lives. Operation Christmas Child brings hope to children throughout the world who, like Mya and Cho, could use a little more joy in their life. Please pray for the millions of children in more than 100 countries who will receive a shoebox gift this year. Pray for the children who enrol in The Greatest Journey, our 12-lesson follow up discipleship program for shoebox recipients. Please pray that God will change the lives of children, their families, and communities through these simple shoebox gifts. *Names changed for security. CHILDREN IN MYANMAR WITH THEIR SHOEBOX ITEMS. 2 EDUCATION UPDATE: GIVING CHILDREN A GATEWAY TO ESCAPE POVERTY Once again, our supporters in Australia and New Zealand have sacrificially given to build an extraordinary number of schools and preschools. At the time of writing this, our building contractors are hard at work to complete the final school buildings scheduled to be opened during the third week of July. A team of our supporters will be joining government and education department dignitaries at the opening ceremonies. We will bring you an update of the openings in August! BEFORE AFTER

3 Shoebox gifts transforming lives in Fiji One of our Fijian Operation Christmas Child regional teams took shoeboxes to a community that is comprised of several religious backgrounds and native Fijian kids. As it turned out, the local church did not have a pastor, but Mary and Joanna* were looking after the community. They visited each house in the community to invite the children and their families to a shoebox outreach event, and many children came from all backgrounds, irrespective of ethnicity and religion! At the event, all the children received a shoebox gift, and parents were moved and wanted to know why it was happening. After the distribution, Mary and Joanna had the opportunity to go back to reconnect with the community, and people willingly opened their homes to them. These ladies were able to share the Gospel and as a result, almost 70 children participated in The Greatest Journey, a 12-lesson discipleship program. These children and their families are now involved in church, and nine families were baptised at The Greatest Journey graduation ceremony too! There was a 70-year-old Hindu man who saw all this going on, and his grandchildren also received shoeboxes. Prior to the graduation ceremony, he went to the church to sweep and clean it in preparation. The church families reached out to him and this man now hosts a Bible study in his home. Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes are making an impact in the community, the lives of the children and in the lives of others. We thank the Lord for what He is doing through these shoeboxes; it is all from Him. *not their real names CHILDREN IN FIJI WITH THEIR SHOEBOXES " I love you as my husband and want you to For the month of April this year, Joel volunteered to deploy to our Emergency Field Hospital (EFH) in Iraq. He shares his story: In January, I prayed that this year would be one that I faithfully pursue God, seeking His direction and will for my life. 'In early March my sister, who works for the communications department for Samaritan s Purse, showed me a short video of the Samaritan s Purse EFH in Iraq, and I felt the instant desire to apply. I spoke to my wife Amy and she said, I love you as my husband and want you to be safe, but you are God s child first and if you feel called to go, I support you. Within three weeks of applying I was on a plane to Iraq. As a qualified registered nurse, and working for over 8 years in the field including experience with emergency and trauma patients, no training could ve prepared me for seeing little bodies of children hurt so badly by evil acts, or how to say the right thing to a man who lost many of his children in a mortar blast. That s the thing about the EFH; it s often not the words, but showing God s love through caring, maybe a smile or just sitting down with a man and supporting him while he grieves the loss of fingers, which will subsequently affect his ability to earn a living and provide for his family. The power of prayer was so evident throughout my month in the EFH. Praying for patients and their families, staff, Iraq and the Middle East. There were so many special moments. Celebrating Easter whilst watching the sunrise over the Nineveh plains, seeing children smile after having their hair washed for the first time in weeks, to praying and singing to a patient while he took his last breaths. God moved in so many ways patients lives were also changed forever as they accepted Christ. 'I am so thankful for Samaritan s Purse and for my time in Iraq; the team I worked beside will forever remain dear to my heart. 3

4 GOING THE EXTRA MILE 19,000 KILOMETRES Distributing the flat-packed Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes and promotional material across this nation annually is a massive task on its own. If you add the logistics of bringing the shoeboxes in from regional Australia to the capital cities, you have a huge, expensive, and complex logistical problem on your hands. In some of our states and in New Zealand, we have had many donors spontaneously provide vehicles and huge numbers of volunteering hours to ease the financial and logistical burden. In New South Wales (), one of our most proactive volunteers and Network Coordinator, Ross Johnson, has surrounded himself with an amazing small army of volunteers, including Geoff Seaberg, Melissa Seaberg, Kirsty Georgans, Judi Sandilands, Roger Hassen, and Ern Brown with his team of nine co-drivers. Two vans were bought by a volunteer and most of the fuel was also paid for by volunteers. One of our volunteers, Ern drove over 19,000kms during 2016 alone in one of the vehicles, often setting off as early as 4am to get to distant regional towns in time for a pick-up and to return home. One of our volunteers from travelled over 19,000kms alone! That is a greater distance than circumnavigating the whole of Australia! Besides the cost of the vehicles, this team would have saved us over $50,000 in courier costs in 2016 alone. We are very grateful to this team as well as every other team in the other states and New Zealand that contributed similarly in this way to reach more children with the Good News and Great Joy of an Operation Christmas Child shoebox. ROSS JOHNSON AND JOHN MITCHELL PACKING RESOURCES INTO OUR VAN. ERN WITH OUR OPERATION CHRISTMAS CHILD VAN. be safe, but you are God s child first " THE SAMARITAN S PURSE TEAM AT THE FIELD HOSPITAL IN IRAQ IN APRIL 4

5 Why YOUR $10 PER SHOEBOX DONATION IS ESSENTIAL We are praying and planning to hand-deliver 370,000 gift-filled shoeboxes to children in seven nations this year. Yes, hand-deliver! Distributing shoeboxes is not as simple as sending a parcel overseas through Australia Post or another carrier. In every receiving country, we have large teams of well-organised and well-trained volunteers who effectively hand-deliver the shoeboxes to children gathered in groups of anywhere between 10 and 200 in villages, slums and towns across these nations. Your donation of $10 per shoebox is the only way we can cover the costs of this project, including freight, processing centre rent, staff, training distribution teams, advertising and administration. This year due to serious cost pressures, we have needed to increase the shoebox donation from $9 to $10. This is the first price change in 7 years and we ask you, our partners, to please kindly help in this way. The cost of funding the training, logistics and sea freight to the receiving countries is enormous. In Australia and New Zealand, we also carry very substantial costs to pay for the rental of processing centres and a team of 14 paid Operation Christmas Child staff. Added to this, we have some inevitable fundraising, resource material and administration costs. Our administration costs for Samaritan s Purse as a whole came to only 10% of our total expenditure in Operation Christmas Child does not own any buildings, nor does it have any cash reserves whatsoever. In fact, generally from the period April through to September every year, it has to borrow money to keep the project going until the donations arrive along with the shoeboxes into our processing centres. In the past, we have been given large numbers of shoeboxes without the $10 contribution, which has forced us to appeal to donors to help us cover the costs of this project. We are desperate to see the $10 donation come in with every shoebox to enable us to run this project on a breakeven basis. DROP OFF YOUR SHOEBOXES DURING OCTOBER AT West Ryde Penrith Port Macquarie Armidale Newcastle Woolloongabba Toowoomba Mooloolaba Springwood Blackburn VIC Hobart TAS Launceston TAS Fyshwick ACT Mt Lawley WA Adelaide SA SHOEBOX SUNDAY, 29 OCTOBER! Operation Christmas Child and Christian Media & Arts Australia radio stations are partnering to send people to your church on Shoebox Sunday, 29 October! Register your church for Shoebox Sunday to be a shoebox dropoff point on 29 October Your metro Christian station will send people to your church to drop off their shoeboxes! On Shoebox Sunday, pray for each child who receives a shoebox that they will know the love of God and be greatly blessed by their gift-filled shoebox. Every shoebox dropped off will be sent overseas by Samaritan s Purse to be given to a child in need. PARTICIPATING STATIONS: When your church registers, you will receive free resources and support to make your Shoebox Sunday a fantastic event and an opportunity to connect with your local community! REGISTER NOW 5 shoeboxsunday.operationchristmaschild.org.au 25 canberra christian radio ltd Celebrating since 1991 years

6 What is impossible for man is possible with God We read in Luke 18:27 that Jesus, referring to salvation, told those who questioned him that what is impossible for man is possible with God. It would be impossible for a team of only 16 employees to reach out to over 300,000 children with Good News and Great Joy and a gift-filled shoebox annually. But what is impossible for man is made possible with God. For it is God who touches the hearts of thousands of volunteers and hundreds of thousands of donors annually, to partner with our little team to reach beautiful boys and girls trapped in poverty in so many remote villages, towns and rural areas in developing nations. We believe it is also in response to the Lord s prompting that so many people give sacrificially to enable educational, health, food and security, water and sanitation, disaster relief, church resourcing and people-at-risk programs to be run in so many parts of the world every year. Aussies and Kiwis have reached out to people as far afield as Mongolia, South Sudan, Iraq, Cambodia, Fiji, Vietnam, Nepal, Vanuatu and other nations around the world, and every dollar spent came from donations there is no government assistance and no reserve on which we can draw. What is impossible for man is made possible with God. It is He who touches all our hearts to reach out together. A little message from all our team to you: We absolutely couldn t do it without you; thank you for being so generous! God bless you Jorge Rodrigues Executive Director Samaritan s Purse Australia/New Zealand WAYS YOU CAN HELP... PRAY... that we reach 370,000 children this year with gift-filled shoeboxes from Operation Christmas Child that The Greatest Journey continues to grow and give joy to children and their families that the local churches in receiving nations will be greatly encouraged by Operation Christmas Child and The Greatest Journey ministry resources entrusted to them, and that they will prayerfully reach out to those in greatest need for new schools and churches to become involved with Operation Christmas Child this year. GIVE Fund our work by giving a one-off donation. Partner with Samaritan s Purse by giving a monthly donation. By leaving a gift in your will to Samaritan s Purse, you will leave a legacy that will live beyond your actual life, reaching out with aid and assistance to people in desperate need. Find out more: samaritanspurse.org.au/give-abequest/ OUR MISSION Samaritan s Purse is a nonprofit, Christian organisation providing emergency relief and development assistance to suffering people around the world. Samaritan s Purse is meeting the physical needs of victims of war, famine, natural disaster, poverty, and disease with the aim of demonstrating God s love and sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ. The aid and assistance are given without regard to the race, creed, gender, religion, or ethnicity of the beneficiaries. GET INVOLVED Volunteer for Operation Christmas Child. Volunteer for Disaster Relief. Fundraise make your birthday a day of change with donations instead of gifts. AUSTRALIA Samaritan s Purse Australia Limited ABN Samaritan s Purse Australasia-Operation Christmas Child Ltd ABN Postal: PO Box 964, Kings Langley 2147 Phone: samaritanspurse.org.au NEW ZEALAND Samaritan s Purse Australia Limited NZ CCRN CC36649 Postal: PO Box 870, Shortland St, Auckland 1140 Phone: samaritanspurse.org.nz