Edward Graham, the grandson of the late evangelist Billy Graham, says shoeboxes filled with gifts reaches more children and unreached people with the Gospel.
“More kids have heard about Christ through these shoebox distributions than ever heard about Christ in stadiums with my grandfather,” said Graham, about the evangelistic opportunity the gifts are creating to share the Gospel around the world.
Packing gift boxes during holidays are underestimated, however Operation Christmas Child, a project of Samaritan’s Purse, opened the door for people to be a part of evangelism efforts around the world. These gift boxes are sent to 160 nations.
In the spring of 2016, Samaritan’s Purse held an outreach event for the Himba people, an unreached people group in the village of Opuwo on the border of Angola and Namibia.
The gift boxes are often filled with toys, school supplies, hygiene items and books with the Gospel message. Samaritans Purse, along with ministry partners, delivers the boxes to children in need around the world, opening the door for the next generation to hear the message of God.
If children want to continue to learn more about Jesus, Operation Christmas Child has a 12-lesson discipleship program, called The Greatest Journey, which takes children further into discovering what it is to follow Jesus and how to share that with their family.
The Himba people participated in an oral version of The Greatest Journey. Their hunger to learn more about Jesus grew so large that the village elder had no other choice but to provide some land under a group of trees for the people to gather and be discipled by Pastor Rizera.
Now, villagers have dedicated a church building in Ombaka, Namibia.
Despite their history of being animists, which consist of worshiping their ancestors and tree spirits, nearly 100 Himba now gather at their new church base to worship Lord Jesus Christ.
Source: The Christian Post