May week 1 Operation Christmas Child Prayer

OCC Mid-South (Arkansas, Tennessee & Kentucky) Requests:

1. Praising God for all of the Mid-South volunteers who attended a Connect conference this year! 
2. Pray for the Mid-South goal of 820,001 GOSPEL OPPORTUNITIES. NEA GOAL is 11,222. USA is 9,500,000. 
3. Please continue to pray for new churches to partner with us in 2016 as drop-off locations. 
4. Pray for the upcoming Connect trip to Zambia next week. Pray for safety and good health for our staff and volunteers. 
5. Pray for Franklin Graham and the Decision America Tour as they continue to travel around the United States. Praising God for amazing turnouts in Arkansas, Tennessee and Kentucky!!

OCC NEA Requests: (Craighead, Clay, Greene, Lawrence, Mississippi, Poinsett, and Randolph Counties):

1. Pray for our 2nd Quarterly Prayer Call of 2016 on May 9th – for the presenters and those joining the Skype session.

International Prayer Requests:

1. Praise God for the 52 countries that have received shoeboxes and volunteer teams are now working hard in Outreach Events to share the Good News with children.
2. Praise God that approximately 131,000 children are about to start The Greatest Journey (12 lesson discipleship program) and another 170,000 have started TGJ and are about to be presented the opportunity to receive Christ. Pray their hearts are wide open to the Gospel!
3. Pray for the shoeboxes still enroute on ships to children in five countries. 
4. Pray for tax exemption of shoeboxes in five countries primarily in Africa and South Asia. 
5. Pray for customs clearance of the sea containers filled with shoebox Gospel Opportunities in eleven countries including Madagascar and three sensitive countries in North Africa, South Asia and East Asia. 
6. Pray for Venezuela, their shoeboxes have been blocked the past 4 years. 
7. Pray as we integrate the NO CANDY and NO TOOTHPASTE into our 2017 campaign of shoeboxes. Due to increasing customs regulations, we will be phasing out these items. Candy and toothpaste have become items of regulatory issue, often causing complications with the delivery of shoeboxes. The mission of Operation Christmas Child is to share the good news of Jesus Christ using a simple shoebox gift as a platform to open doors to share the Gospel. Including these items are increasingly proving to prevent entry into a large number of our recipient countries and blocking the opportunity to share God’s love with children in need. For this reason, toothpaste and candy will still be allowed during this year’s 2016 collection, but will become official inappropriate items in 2017. To see an up-to-date list of what can and can’t go in a shoebox, visit our website here. If you have further questions, please email us at occinfo@samaritan.org

This week also join us in praying or Cameroon and Burkina Faso in Africa.
Cameroon: Shoebox gifts collected in the United States in 2015 will be delivered to 137,496 children in Cameroon. Praise God that over 539,629 children have received a shoebox since 2001, when Operation Christmas Child began distributing gifts here. Cameroon has 23.7 million people and is located in Central Africa. 43% of the population is 14 years old or younger. Only 9% of the population is Evangelical Christian.

1. Pray God will protect the volunteers and Ministry Partners in the mission field during the outreach events and trainings. Pray the ministry partners fully understand their role and continue to engage in OCC. 
2. Pray The Greatest Journey discipleship program (TGJ) will have a great impact on the children and will transform their lives. Pray the testimonies will be included in the reports. 
3. Praise God for the peace in Cameroon. http://www.samaritanspurse.org/operation-christmas-child-countries/cameroon/

Burkina Faso: is A landlocked country of the Sahel. Prone to drought and famine. Shoebox gifts collected in the United States in 2015 will be delivered to 202,200 children in Burkina Faso. Praise God that over 1,026,229 children have received a shoebox since 1999, when Operation Christmas Child began distributing gifts here. Burkina Faso has 18.9 million people and is located in West Africa. 45% of the population is 14 years old or younger.

1. Pray for the children as they complete their TGJ Bible classes.
2. Praise God for His provision for OCC.
3. Pray for the safety and the ministry of the team members as they travel to support the project. 
4. Pray God continues to strengthen and motivate partners, who hold the Gospel sacred, to join OCC. http://www.samaritanspurse.org/operation-christmas-child-countries/burkina_faso/

Children in Cameroon receiving Shoeboxes