31 Days of Prayer Operation Christmas Child - Day 14

We are on day 14 of 31 days of prayer for Operation Christmas Child leading up to National Collection Week.  Today we are praying for our "2016 National Collection Week 24/7 Prayer" to engage in effective prayer coverage for Operation Christmas Child.  Coming soon there will be a link to sign up online. You may choose as many 10 minute time slots as you would like to each day November 14-21st.

With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints. (Ephesians 6:18, NASB)

Your prayers are essential to the work of Operation Christmas Child. Our goal this year is to collect 11,222 shoeboxes from Northeast Arkansas. During National Collection Week we will pray for the people packing the boxes, the volunteers who will be collecting, processing, and delivering the gifts, and for the children receiving them.

If you are a prayer warrior, please sign up and pray for OCC.  We are at 78% of our goal of 25,000 Prayer Network Partners from the USA for the year. "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18.

Become a Prayer Network Partner at: OCC Website

October 2016 Operation Christmas Child Prayer Requests

A Wide Door is Open to the Effective Work

“For a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.” (1 Corinthians 16:9)

The hopelessness a child faces in circumstances beyond their control can be heart breaking. Poverty, human trafficking, exploitation, disease or losing a parent (or parents) due to war are realities the majority of children are experiencing around the world. Your prayers and the simple selfless act of packing a shoebox stuffed with God’s love has opened a wide door for the effective work of the Gospel. This tangible expression of the mercy, forgiveness and the unconditional love of God through local churches continues to receive favor by many countries in Asia. Unity among churches working with Operation Christmas Child is increasing. Almost 39 million shoeboxes have been distributed along with the proclamation of the Gospel throughout Asia – all by faithful and prayerful volunteers.  Pray for the safety, longevity and encouragement of Operation Christmas Child volunteers as they face many adversaries. 

This month we are praying for Asia. General Prayer Requests each country faces is: Wisdom to recruit, select and lead new and/or transitioning volunteer leadership team members. Provision of resources to reach their God-sized goals for the current year. Also don't forget to be praying for our NEA Goal of 11,222 Shoeboxes during National Collection Week, November 14-21st!!! NATIONAL COLLECTION WEEK IS ONLY 5 WEEKS AWAY!!!!!

Week 1 - Mongolia and Sensitive Countries in Russia, Europe and Central Asia.  Mongolia's Requests:

1. Pray the children enrolled in The Greatest Journey (TGJ) discipleship program will finish well.
2. Pray the national volunteer team will be well-equipped to support the strategic and regional volunteer teams as they minister in their local areas. 
3. Pray for safety and wisdom during the trips the national volunteer team will be taking in each region this season. 

 

Sensitive Countries in Russia, Europe and Central Asia's Requests:

1. Pray for the children who have heard the Gospel through Operation Christmas Child and the follow-up work with them. 
2. Pray the government authorities will look favorably on the project. 
3. Pray Operation Christmas Child receives permission to import shoebox gifts. 
4. Pray God will give the national volunteer teams wisdom, creativity, and the ability to convey the meaning and goal of Operation Christmas Child to all pastors, church workers and volunteers.

October Week 2 Sensitive Countries in Russia, Europe and Central Asia  (continued) Requests:

1. Pray for the friendship between the churches, especially among pastors.
2. Pray for boldness and wisdom for The Greatest Journey teachers and for every discipleship group that has started. 
3. Pray for the long-term impact of Operation Christmas Child in the region. 
4. Pray for the strengthening and training of volunteer leadership teams. 
5. Pray for the timely printing of the New Testament in the local language. 
6. Pray for the distribution of gifts in new areas. 
7. Pray for the children who heard the Gospel and for the follow-up work with them. 
8. Pray the team will be able to receive shoeboxes without customs inspecting every single box, which can take several months.

October Week 3: Sensitive Countries in South Asia's Requests:

1. Pray for the upcoming distribution season. Pray that the government’s many requirements won’t interfere with the distributions. 
2. Pray for the distributions as they will be conducted during the monsoon season due to the delay with the tax exemption. 
3. Pray for the consignees as many governments have begun to scrutinize them as a result of accusations by the majority religion. 
4. Pray for each of the volunteer leadership teams throughout each country. Pray they will encourage the Ministry Partners in spreading the Gospel to children and their families.

October Week 4: Sensitive Countries in South Asia's Requests Continued:

1. Pray for the outreach to refugees from restricted access countries. 
2. Pray for the volunteer teams as they seek to navigate the increasing hostility against Christianity and for their outreach to children. 
3. Pray for the prayer meetings that have been started in the region. 
4. Pray for the clearance of gift boxes as there is opposition to some items. Pray for the continued improvement of the teams’ relationships with the customs officers. 
5. Pray that God will stop the attacks and violence in this country. Pray He will lead the government in stopping the increasing terrorism and targeted killings. Pray God will bless this region and protect His people. 
6. Pray for the discipleship of thousands of children; that God will multiply the fruit of salvation through their lives to their families

Upcoming Prayer Initiatives 

Join our year around Prayer Network: OCC PRAYER NETWORK - We are at 73% of our Prayer Partner Goal!!!!

31 Days of Prayer - Join us for 31 Days of Prayer starting October 14 as we approach Operation Christmas Child’s National Collection Week! Each day’s topics include national and international requests for our volunteers and donors around the world that more children would have an opportunity to respond to the Gospel and participate in The Greatest Journey 12-week discipleship program.

National Collection Week 24-7 Prayer - Your prayers are essential to the work of Operation Christmas Child. During National Collection Week, November 14-21, you can sign up to join our 24-hour prayer coverage. Our goal this year is to collect 12 million shoebox gifts from the United States and nine other countries. Each day has a different prayer point including people packing shoeboxes, the volunteers who will be collecting, processing, and delivering the gifts, and for the children receiving them. Signup for a 10-minute slot and join our 24-hour prayer coverage. Our goal this year is to collect 12 million shoebox gifts from the United States and nine other countries. Each day has a different prayer point, including the donors who are packing the shoebox gifts, the volunteers who will be collecting, processing, and delivering the gifts, the children receiving the shoebox gifts. Look for another blog post on November 7th with a link to sign up for a 10-minute time slot to pray during National Collection Week!

“Pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (Matthew 9:38 ESV) through shoebox gifts and The Greatest Journey discipleship program.

More Photos from Mongolia:

Mongolia Shoebox Delivery

September weeks 3 & 4 Pray for Operation Christmas Child

During the 3rd week of September we are praying for Moldova, Poland and Romania.

Moldova’s request is: Pray for the children who have heard the Gospel through OCC and the follow-up work with them. Click here for a video link: Moldova OCC Video

Poland’s requests are:
*Pray God will provide a new vision for OCC in Poland. Pray that He will open the hearts of more children and their families.
*Pray for wisdom as the team prepares for the national volunteer meetings in Sobieszowo.

Romania’s request is: Pray God will provide someone to serve as a volunteer leader in the Moldova area. For Livia's Romanian Shoebox Story click here: Shoebox Stories! 

Romania Operation Christmas Child Distribution

During the 4th week of September we are praying for Serbia and Slovakia. 

Serbia’s requests are:

OCC Distribution Serbia

* Pray God will bless the children who receive the shoeboxes and their parents. Pray they will accept God and follow Him.
* Pray the volunteers and other believers are able to teach the children how to apply biblical principles they learn through TGJ to their everyday lives.
* Pray for the new national volunteers as they begin to serve in their new roles.
* Pray the people from the new Roma house group that formed after the distributions will increase in the wisdom and revelation of the knowledge of God.
* Pray OCC will reach more children in the coming season.

Solovakia is a locked central European state south of Poland. Only 1% of the over 5 million population is Evangelical Christian. There are 20 different people groups that speak 13 different languages. Slovakia’s requests are:
* Pray for the new OCC season in Slovakia. Pray many children will become true disciples of Christ through TGJ.
* Pray God will open the doors for OCC Outreach Events to occur in the places God has put on the heart of the local church pastors.

* Slovakia Shoebox Testimony: Dominika was raised in Slovakia, and her family was very poor. When she was four years old, her father left them, and her mother had no money to buy gifts for Christmas. That year, Dominika received a shoebox gift from Operation Christmas Child. For the first time, as she read the note in her box talking about Jesus' love, she felt that someone loved her. 

For the History of Operation Christmas Child Timeline Click Here: https://www.samaritans-purse.org.uk/who-we-are/our-history/history-of-operation-christmas-child/ 

September Operation Christmas Child Prayer Requests (week 1 & 2)

Monthly Prayer Update – September 2016 

Natasha: “When I received a shoebox, I knew there were people out there who cared for me. I was not alone.”
  Click for STORY!

Prayer Reminders

* Praise God that even sensitive countries have received shoeboxes and volunteers are sharing the Good News with children.
* Pray for the national goal of reaching 9.5 million shoeboxes during the Collection Season.
* Pray for the Processing Centers that will host more than 110,000 volunteers to be set up quickly and safely as the processing season approaches.

This month we are praying for Balkans, Baltics and Central Europe.  The International Prayer Requests that each country faces are:
* Wisdom to recruit, select and lead new and/or transitioning volunteer leadership team members.
* Provision of resources to reach their God-sized goals for the current year.

This week are are praying for Belarus.
* Pray for the strengthening and renewal of those who take part in the OCC project. Pray God will send new laborers to join in the ministry. Pray for interdenominational cooperation.

* Pray for the hearts of the children who were at the Outreach Events, of those who have been in The Greatest Journey (TGJ) classes, and for their parents. Pray that they will start to attend Sunday schools and summer Bible schools. Pray the children, along with their parents, will start to follow Christ and will join the church.
* Pray that there will be no obstacles for TGJ classes or Christmas events as it is forbidden to celebrate Christmas in certain areas.

Franklin Graham delivers shoebox gifts to children in Bosnia. The program has grown from 28,000 the first year to over 100 million.

We are also praying for Bosnia-Herzegovina. Two decades after it started, Operation Christmas Child continues to deliver shoebox gifts and the Good News of Jesus Christ to boys and girls around the world. Twenty years ago, Franklin Graham made a promise to collect a few gifts for boys and girls in war-torn Bosnia. Today, Operation Christmas Child has become a year-round, international project, delivering millions of shoeboxes to children in nearly 100 countries each year. Click HERE for full story

* Pray for the new members of the national and regional volunteers as they are equipped to lead the OCC ministry of Gospel multiplication in their country.

Bulgaria - Pray the local church leaders continue to have the opportunity to share the Gospel and help the children grow in their knowledge and faith in God. Pray for the children who have graduated from TGJ and will be attending Christian summer camps.
* Testimony from Bulgaria: Miroslav was abandoned by his parents from birth and was brought up in the orphanage system. He has special needs and finds a way to express himself through the arts. He draws all the time and makes cards from different natural materials. He shared that he ran out of colored pencils. In his Operation Christmas Child gift, he found a pencil box with everything he needed to draw, as well as a set of paints.

Lithuania * Pray for the upcoming OCC season. Pray God will guide the volunteers and give them wisdom and strength.
* Pray for the pastors of the evangelical churches. Pray they will understand the importance and urgency reaching out to the youth and will give themselves to this service.
* Testimony from Lithuania: After one distribution in Lithuania, a girl came up to us and shared her story. That week their class was going to the swimming pool. It's a great event for the kids living in a village area. The girl had one problem – she didn't have slippers and without them kids were not allowed to come into the pool. When the girl opened her box and found slippers, she was so excited that she rushed toward us to tell of her great miracle and show us proof that God really cares about her! 

Lithuania

 

Macedonia -
* Pray for the children participating in all the post-TGJ activities.
* Pray for the new volunteers as they grasp the vision of OCC.
* Pray for God’s guidance and wisdom as the team plans for the coming season.

Join the Operation Christmas Child Prayer Network: CLICK HERE!

Pray with OCC - August 28-Sept. 3

As we sang "Jesus Is All the World to Me" tonight at church I couldn't help but think how blessed we are to be able to say "Jesus is all the world to me, My life, my Joy, my All; He is my strength from day to day, without Him I would fall. When I am sad, to Him I go, No other one can cheer me so; When I am sad, He makes me glad- He's my Friend."

When we pack gift-filled shoeboxes and send them to children around the world we are sharing the good news of Jesus with them! Each child receives The Greatest Gift (a Bible story booklet in their own language) with their shoebox and they are invited to come to a 12-lesson discipleship class that teaches them more about Jesus. I can't imagine living in this world, day to day, without Jesus to guide and help me, but people around the world do it every day, without hope. YOU can make a difference by praying for and packing Operation Christmas Child Shoeboxes.

This week we are praying for Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent, Trinidad and Tobago.

Saint Lucia - shoebox gifts collected in the United States in 2015 will be delivered to 8,088 children in Saint Lucia. Praise God that over 12,000 children have received a shoebox since 2005, when Operation Christmas Child began distributing gifts here. Saint Lucia’s Requests are:

1. Pray for the provision of storage for the shoeboxes and materials. 
2. Pray more Ministry Partners will join OCC. 

Saint Vincent - shoebox gifts collected in the United States in 2015 will be delivered to 3,707 children in Saint Vincent. Praise God that over 37,900 children have received a shoebox since 2003, when Operation Christmas Child began distributing gifts here. Saint Vincent has 102,000 people and is located in the southern portion of the Windward Islands. 22% of the population is 14 years old or younger. Saint Vincent’s Requests are: 

1. Pray God will raise up more regional church mobilizers. 
2. Pray for the unity of church leadership in Saint Vincent. 
3. Pray for a great harvest of children as a result of the implementation of the OCC program in Grenada and St. Vincent. 
4. Praise God for His faithfulness in all the areas of ministry He allowed OCC in Grenada and St. Vincent this year. 

   

   St Vincent Operation Christmas Child

Trinidad and Tobago - Shoebox gifts collected in the United States in 2015 will be delivered to 24,264 children in Trinidad and Tobago. Praise God that over 340,460 children have received a shoebox since 2000, when Operation Christmas Child began distributing gifts here. Trinidad and Tobago has 1.2 million people and is located off the northern edge of South America. 19% of the population is 14 years old or younger. Trinidad and Tobago’s Requests are: 

1. Pray the MPs will see the vision of OCC, pray before each Outreach Event, and then be able to share how God answers their prayers for the children. 
2. Pray God protects the children of Trinidad and Tobago and leads them into a relationship with Jesus.
3. Pray against the criminal activity in Trinidad and Tobago.

Trinidad - A Tangible Hope video: https://youtu.be/NokbqX6RBJQ 

Trinidad Opeartion Christmas Child

Romans 12:12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.

GET FURTHER INVOLVED

Click here to learn more about becoming a year-round volunteer for Operation Christmas Child what-we-do/operation-christmas-child! 

Pray with Operation Christmas Child August 21-27th

Week Three: August 21-27^th This week we are praying for Mexico, Nicaragua and Panama.

Mexico –  Shoebox gifts collected in the United States in 2015 will be delivered to 755,386 children in Mexico. Praise God that over 8,914,400 children have received a shoebox since 1995, when Operation Christmas Child began distributing gifts here. Mexico has 121.7 million people and is located in North America. 28% of the population is 14 years old or younger.

1.       Pray that God would reveal His choice for the next National Coordinator role and that OCC leadership would have clarity in the selection process.

2.       Pray the team reaches their goal of having 33 Regional Leadership Teams to cover the entire country.

3.       Pray the national Connect conference where volunteers gathered for equipping and prayer, which was held from July 27 – 30, has a lasting impact on the leadership teams.  Pray for continued fellowship and spiritual edification as the teams prepare for the 2016/2017 season.

4.       Praise God for allowing OCC to operate throughout Mexico.

5.       Pray for the upcoming TGJ classes. Pray for the teachers and children who will be involved with the program this year. 

Nicaragua - Pray for the vision casting meetings and the wisdom in the recruitment of a new National Leadership Team.

Panama - Shoebox gifts collected in the United States in 2015 will be delivered to 121,320 children in Panama. Praise God that over 1,236,400 children have received a shoebox since 1996, when Operation Christmas Child began distributing gifts here. Panama has 3.6 million people and is the southernmost country of Central America

27% of the population is 14 years old or younger.

1.       Pray God will pour out His mercy and forgiveness to Panama and free it from the AH1N1 virus that is attacking the country and has already killed 22 people, including some children. Pray for divine healing.

2.       Pray God will continue to add members to the prayer teams in each region until the goal of a prayer team in each local church is achieved.

3.       Pray for all the preparation for the national Connect conference when our volunteers will gather for equipping and prayer in August in Panama.  Pray God will pour out His Holy Spirit and His power to each person who will attend.  Pray they will feel his presence in a tangible, supernatural way, resulting in miracles in their lives.

4.       Pray for the distribution events, especially for the clarity of the Gospel presentations.

5.       Pray the TGJ teachers boldly deliver the lessons so that the children’s faith in Jesus will be affirmed.

Panama

"And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us." 1 John 5:14

Are You Determined as you start back to school or work tomorrow?

Determination-a quality that makes you continue trying to do or achieve something that is difficult.

“But he (God) said to me (Paul), "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” 2 Corinthians 12:9 ESV

"Walt Davis was totally paralyzed by polio when he was nine years old, but he did not give up. He became the Olympic high jump champion in 1952."

"Shelly Mann was paralyzed by polio when she was five years old, but she would not give up. She eventually claimed eight different swimming records for the U.S. and won a gold medal at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia."

"Lou Gehrig was such a clumsy ball player that the boys in his neighborhood would not let him play on their team. But he was committed. He did not give up. Eventually, his name was entered into baseball's Hall of Fame."

"Woodrow Wilson could not read until he was ten years old. But he was a committed person. He became the twenty-eighth President of the United States."

No matter what handicaps you and I may have, God has a place for us within His Body, the Church, and a work for us to do. Nobody ever said it would be easy. What Jesus did for us wasn't easy either. So your mission, should you choose to accept it is: whatever it is that God has for you to do, never give up, for God never calls any of us to do anything that—with His help—cannot be done. Look at your calling for each day. What does God want you to do today? Are you determined to accomplish it? If we accomplish the tasks He has called us to each day then our whole life will be lived following His calling for us, one day at a time! Start each day in prayer and Bible study asking God to show you what is most important for today. Then be determined to accomplish it. As your work week or 1st day of school starts back tomorrow, are you determined to make it the best one yet?

Prayer: Our Loving Father God, please show me what your purpose for my life is each and every day and give me the faith, determination, and perseverance to never give up until my work on earth is done. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, In Jesus Loving Name I Pray, Amen.

( quotes from daily devotionals & ESV Bible)