You could feel the excitement in the air! Visiting an Operation Christmas Child shoe box

distribution in Fiji last Christmas, Judy (pictured above), a Samaritan’s Purse Australia volunteer, found herself in the middle of a church filled with hundreds of young children – all eagerly awaiting their own shoe box.

It was quite a scene as each child ripped open their box to discover the treasures inside. That is, each child except a little boy named Ajay (pictured above), who sat at the end of one pew with his head down

and his hands in his lap. Judy soon learned that Ajay was almost blind, and not only that, his mum had recently died. Ajay had a lot to be sad about.

When Judy sat down beside Ajay and helped him open his shoe box, tears filled her eyes. Right on the top was a magnifying glass. Judy knew that God had guided the gift-giver when they packed their box months before.

Judy took the magnifying glass out of the box and held it up in front of The Greatest Gift booklet that was under the shoe box. A smile crept across Ajay’s face as he saw through the magnifying glass the colourful pages of the book in front of him. Ajay was delighted, and when the shoe box distribution was over, said a gentle goodbye, squeezing Judy’s hand. It...

IN this issue • YOUR SUPPORT HELPS REACH

THE ECONOMICALLY AND SOCIALLY MARGINALISED WITH GOD’S LOVE

• OPERATION CHRISTMAS CHILD SHOE BOXES – NOT THE END OF THE STORY!

• A LETTER TO YOU FROM JORGESamaritan’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 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.

AUSTRALIAPO Box 6544, Blacktown BC NSW 2148Phone: 1300 884 468 Fax: 61 2 8825 1313www.samaritanspurse.org.auABN: 84 070 722 404

NEW ZEALAND PO BOX 870, Auckland 1140Phone: 0800 726 274www.samaritanspurse.org.nzCHARITIES COMMISSION REGISTRATION NUMBER CC36649

samaritantheBRINGING GOD’S UNCONDITIONAL LOVE TO THOSE IN GREATEST NEED

SUMMER 2011

“WHEN JUDY SAT DOWN BESIDE AJAY TO HELP HIM OPEN HIS SHOE BOX, TEARS FILLED HER EYES.”

Ajay’s Big Day! See how your Operation Christmas Child shoe box brings help and hope to struggling children.

A letter to you FROM JORGE...Dear Friend,

This year we have the opportunity to bring ‘Christmas in a box’ to more needy kids than ever before. Our goal is to distribute 320,000 Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes with your help!

One of the new opportunities before us this year is seeing 10,000 shoe boxes given to children in the Papua New Guinea Highlands. This comes in response to a request from churches in PNG and is the first time Operation Christmas Child has reached that remote part of the country.

I am sure you will agree that this is such a wonderful opportunity to share God’s love with children who may never have received a Christmas gift!

And your involvement this year is more important than ever as many of our supporters in Christchurch and Queensland have been hit by natural disasters and may not be able to support us to the extent they have done in the past.

As you’ll see in these pages, your love, expressed through your shoe box, brings an unforgettable smile to the face of a little boy or girl who may never have received a Christmas gift before – like Ajay, whom you can read about on page 1.

But what’s so exciting is that your Operation Christmas Child shoe box does so much more than just bless a single child like Ajay (even though that’s quite a blessing itself!).

As you’ll read on page 2, Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes help us gain the trust of communities that don’t often trust outsiders. When they see how much people in Australia and New Zealand care for them, they’re more open to allowing us to help them in other ways.

So thank you for expressing the unconditional love of Christ this year through your Operation Christmas Child shoe box – bringing hope and joy to needy kids across the South East Asia Pacific region.

We’re excited about the challenge of changing the lives of 320,000 kids this Christmas through Operation Christmas Child because we know you’re with us and together we can reach this goal.

Thank you for your partnership!

Jorge Rodrigues, Executive Director

PS. “He who gives to the poor lends to the Lord…” Pr 19:17a NKJV.

(continued on page 2)

Share What Truelo ve is!A gift from our “Love is…” gift catalogue will bless not only a struggling family overseas, it will also powerfully impact those who give the gift.

So if you’d like to share our gift catalogue with friends, family, work colleagues, or even strangers in a waiting room, please order more copies by calling us today.

GIFT CATALOGUE 2011/12love is...Bringing God’s unconditional love to those in need.

Samaritan’s Purse Australia and New Zealand is known by many because of our Operation Christmas Child shoe box project. However our

love and care for children does not stop with shoe box distributions. Friends like you enable us to have a transformational impact on the lives of thousands of children and their families every year. Families like Sok Phoeun’s.Sok Phoeun is a 35-year-old single dad who takes care of his two children in his home village of Phnom Krom, Cambodia. He’s also responsible for two other children whose parents were forced to leave to find work in Malaysia. This means it’s up to him to send all four children to school – despite his meagre income.

“Even though I don’t have enough income for living because I am a farmer and can’t pay school fees for all the children,” says Sok, “I still send them to study because education is important for them.”

With support from friends like you, Samaritan’s Purse was able to open a preschool near Sok’s home, called Phnom Krom Preschool. Sok is able to send his children to the preschool

because generous supporters also provided school fees for those who cannot afford to pay. By building

preschools many children, who would otherwise not have access to education, have the first building blocks for a future free from poverty.

The good news is that it’s not just the Phnom Krom Preschool that you’ve help establish. Through your generous support we have opened 9 new schools and preschools and run a feeding program for approximately 11,000 school children in Cambodia!

So thank you for helping us to reach out to new communities with Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes and other life-impacting projects that bring education, water and sanitation, health, disaster relief, community empowerment, help for orphans and vulnerable children, and children's resources for church leaders.

We look forward to sharing even more how your gifts impact so many lives!

Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes – not the end of the story!

Your support

T his past July Samaritan’s Purse shared how you could radically change

the lives of people trapped in a cycle of unrelenting poverty, and empower them to create a new future for themselves and their families.

As you may remember, we shared about various livelihood projects in Mongolia, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, PNG, Solomon Islands and Sri Lanka. And we shared how there was a funding need of $65,000 for these projects to continue uninterrupted.

We’re excited to let you know that as at the beginning of October our donors have generously given $33,520

in response to the livelihoods appeal - well on the way to our goal!

“It’s exciting to see our supporters

responding to this urgent need,” says Jorge Rodrigues, Executive Director of Samaritan’s Purse. “And by God’s grace our goal will be met so that more people trapped in poverty can build a livelihood, develop a sustainable lifestyle and create a new future for themselves and their families.”

One person whose life has changed through our livelihood projects is a man called Bayarnemeh from Mongolia. A victim of a “dzud” – an

unusually snowy winter that resulted in the death of many livestock due to the cold and a lack of food – Bayarnemeh lost 400 animals, creating a huge crisis for him and his family.

Through the generous response of friends like you, we are able to help people like Bayarnemeh and his family get back on their feet. “I got 10 beautiful head of yaks,” he exclaims. “I am so happy! Many thanks to the people of Samaritan’s Purse.”

Thank you for giving so generously to help reach economically marginalised people like Bayarnemeh with God’s love. And please pray that our livelihood projects funding goal is met very soon. We are grateful for you!

helps reach the economically and socially marginalised with God’s love.

“I GOT 10 BEAUTIFUL HEAD OF YAKS... I AM SO HAPPY! MANY THANKS TO THE PEOPLE OF SAMARITAN’S PURSE.“

Livelihoods projects empower people trapped in poverty to develop a sustainable lifestyle and create a new future for themselves and their families.

Through your generous support we have opened 9 new schools and preschools in Cambodia.

...was a simple, yet profound expression of thanks from a child whose whole world was opened up through the power of a simple gift sent with love from a stranger who cared.

Now, as Christmas quickly approaches, you have the unique opportunity once again to transform the world of a young child like Ajay by giving an Operation Christmas Child shoe box.

Please visit our website or call us to find out how you can pack a shoe box this year. And thank you for bringing life-changing joy to more kids like Ajay.

Ajay’s Big Day!

“A SMILE CREPT ACROSS AJAY’S FACE AS HE SAW THROUGH THE MAGNIFYING GLASS, THE COLOURFUL PAGES OF THE BOOK IN FRONT OF HIM.”

(continued from page 1)

“EVEN THOUGH I DON’T HAVE ENOUGH INCOME FOR LIVING... I STILL SEND THEM TO STUDY...”

You can find many more ways to empower

people trapped in poverty through the

gift catalogue.

GIFT CATALOGUE 2011/12

love is...Bringing God’s

unconditional love

to those in need.

CommunityTO: A student in Vietnam

Many homes in Cambodia and Vietnam are surrounded by empty land, so there is potential to not only gain household food security, but also earn an income by raising livestock and selling surplus pigs, chickens and eggs. Your gifts will help provide the livestock as well as education and practical assistance in the areas of agriculture, farming techniques, animal husbandry and livestock management.

Samaritan’s Purse has projects in the poor Vietnam highlands region to train students living in remote school dormitories in raising laying hens. The students must provide their own food and the hens provide eggs for them to eat and to sell. When the students graduate from the project at the end of grade nine, they are able to take home breeding chickens to their family so they can enjoy chicken and eggs for life and sell the surplus.

$90 Buy 2 pigs and start a pig familyBreeding and selling pigs produces a steady income and a sustainable future for poor families, and your gift of two pigs will help make this possible!

TO: A poor family in rural Cambodia

$7A laying hen

CommunityEmpowerment

$7/month will provide another student with a laying hen every month

12

MONTHLY OPTION

MONTHLY OPTION

You can find more ways to bring education to

children in the gift catalogue.

GIFT CATALOGUE 2011/12

love is...Bringing God’s

unconditional love

to those in need.

Health Education is critical to breaking the cycle of poverty, however, children in poor countries often don’t have access to school. Through your support, our educational projects help communities build schools, develop skilled teachers and purchase supplies. Educating children builds hope and gives a reason to believe that there will be a different tomorrow.

Good meals provide the incentive poor families need to send their children to school. Your gift will help us coordinate the transport, cooking, preparation and distribution of food supplied by the World Food Program, and keep the hunger away for a class of 35 children in one of the 20 Cambodian schools where this program operates so that they can focus on school and learning! $7 Provide a meal for a child every school day for a year

TO: A school child in Cambodia

$245 Feed a whole class every school day for a year

TO: 35 school children in Cambodia

Education

GIVE TODAY! 1300 884 468 | samaritanspurse.org.au/gifts

$7/month will provide one more child each month with a meal every school day for a year

9MONTHLY OPTION

MONTHLY OPTION

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