Pray with OCC August week 1, Caribbean, North and Central America

Thank you for devoting your time to praying for the ministry of Operation Christmas Child. Covering this ministry in prayer is what makes it so successful in taking Gospel Opportunities around the world where they learn of the love of Christ through gift-filled shoeboxes, The Greatest Gift and The Greatest Journey. Below is our list of specific requests for August. As always, pray without ceasing!

Caribbean, North and Central America are the countries we will be praying for all month.

Week One: August 7-13th
MIDSOUTH Requests:

1. It is ONLY THREE MONTHS away from National Collection Week and now is the time to ramp up our prayer mobilization to ask God to bring in 820,001 gospel opportunities in the form of shoeboxes. Your role as prayer mobilizers is imperative in ensuring that gospel opportunities are made, delivered, and transported on their way to children in over 100 countries! I challenge you to send this prayer list out to other people and get them to be a prayer partner with OCC too! They don’t have to be a year around volunteer to pray for OCC, I just need an email address and name to send the requests to! Help sign someone up as prayer partner at: operation-christmas-child/prayer-network today!  
2. Pray for our Prayer Network Goal. We Have Reached 41% of Our 25,000 Prayer Network Partner Goal! We have 10,384 Current Prayer Network Partners in the USA. We must ask God to direct and initiate all we do through OCC; that is where our Prayer Network Partners and Prayer Mobilization Team Members come in! We can make a dent in the schemes of Satan today and claim children in the name of Jesus! How many Prayer Network Partners will you add and mobilize as we enter into our busy season?! Will you join me in praying for BIG things from our Prayer Mobilization Teams in the Mid-South this year! Who’s ready? I am! “And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith”. Matthew 21:22 
3. Continue to pray for new churches to partner with us as drop-off locations and for new churches and community groups to pack shoeboxes. 
4. Pray for upcoming events this fall: Kick-offs, countdowns, project Leader workshops and Full Circle Speaker tours. 
5. Pray for shoebox goals: Mid-South 820,001, U.S. 9.5 million and World-wide 12 million.

NEA Requests:

1. NEA Shoebox Goal for our7 counties is: 11,222 Gospel Opportunities!!!!! 
2. Josh and Jill McCarty who were on our Area Team are now Church Planters in Grand Junction, Colorado. They ask that we pray for: the changes their family faces, that they find a rental house, that they are able to build a team of prayer warriors and financial supporters, for Josh’s leadership, for Jill as she adjust to everything new & homeschooling, for their hearts as they miss everyone, and for there to be Great Joy in their new city. 
3. Lift up all of our students and teachers as they will be Back to School next week. May the Light of Christ shine through the Christian Kids and Teachers to influence the lost souls in the schools so that some may come to accept Christ as their Savior.

International Prayer Requests: This week pray we are praying for Aruba, the Bahamas, Barbados, and Costa Rica.

1. Praise God for the safe delivery of millions of gift-filled shoeboxes to countries around the world including many sensitive countries. 
2. Pray for customs clearance and tax exemption of the remaining sea containers filled with shoebox Gospel Opportunities in six sensitive countries in Africa, South Asia and East Asia. 

Specific requests from each country are below:
Aruba - Pray the team is able to connect with the Ministry Partner’s (MPs) and the parents, so that they can successfully reach the children.

Bahamas - Shoebox gifts collected in the United States in 2015 will be delivered to 19,884 children in the Bahamas. Praise God that over 67,892 children have received a shoebox since 2010, when Operation Christmas Child began distributing gifts here. The Bahamas has 324,000 people and is an island country located in the Atlantic Ocean. 23% of the population is 14 years old or younger.

1. Pray the Ministry Partner’s outreach event strategy (Friend to Friend, Focused Outreach, and Broad Outreach) will awaken a renewed passion in the hearts of Christians in the Bahamas to become active in evangelism during the 2016/2017 season of OCC. 
2. Pray the local churches will mobilize and accomplish OCC’s goals for reaching children with the distributions and TGJ. 
3. Pray the children will hear and respond to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Barbados - Shoebox gifts collected in the United States in 2015 will be delivered to 8,088 children in Barbados. Praise God that over 7,929 children have received a shoebox since 2014 when Operation Christmas Child began distributing gifts here. Barbados has 290,000 people and is located in the Lesser Antilles. 18% of the population is 14 years old or younger.

1. Pray God grants the NLT strength and wisdom as they seek to create dynamic children’s ministries. 
2. Pray the children will hear and respond to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Costa Rica - Pray for The Greatest Journey (TGJ) classes that are beginning in public schools. Pray the classes will continue to run well and have excellent results.

Costa Rica 2015

There’s nothing quite like the joy on a child’s face when they receive a gift of love. Shoebox gifts from Operation Christmas Child show children worldwide that they are loved. Simple items like small toys, school supplies and hygiene items are treasures to boys and girls who have very little to call their own. But the real joy is when children learn about the love of Jesus Christ, many for the first time. That is why Operation Christmas Child exists–to deliver good news and great joy through the power of a simple gift. Just look on their faces and see for yourself. This Christmas, remember what true joy looks like. “But Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven'” (Matt 19:14 NKJV). Click here to see: Joy Around The World OCC Photos