By Dan Wooding

Franklin Graham, the CEO of Samaritan’s Purse said in Santa Ana, California this week that there will be 8 million Shoe Box gifts packed with tiny treasures going to 110 countries this year, and each Shoe Box will be prayed over. The eight million Shoe Boxes being delivered through Operation Christian Child will not only be filled with toys, but also prayers.

Samaritans Purse runs the Operation Christian Child Shoe Box project. Franklin Graham was in Santa Ana to see more than 400 local volunteers packing the Shoe Boxes and to thank them for their contributions. He told ANS about the project in an interview at the warehouse where packing the Shoe Boxes was being done.

“We’re collecting these shoe box gifts that have been given by local families,” he said. “We will distribute about eight million of them in 110 countries this year.

“This project really is an evangelistic program. We ask people to pray for the child who’s going to get their box.

“We do the distribution through churches around the world and these churches give out the boxes, but, they put it together with a little Christmas program that introduces the child to the true meaning of Christmas; and each year we see tens of thousands of children give their hearts to Jesus Christ.

“So this is an evangelistic program it’s families reaching out to families.

“It’s churches reaching out to churches, and we’re building bridges of relationships, friendship with children overseas with families back here in this country. It’s a wonderful program.”

Thanking the Volunteers

I then asked Franklin, who is a son of veteran evangelist, Billy Graham, how he felt when he sees the thousands of volunteers that make Operation Christmas Child possible.

“Each year, we get more and more and volunteers and it gets bigger and I just see God’s hand in it,” he said.

“These are wonderful people that come down here to make this thing happen. I couldn’t do it without them. But they’re doing it not for Franklin Graham; they’re doing it for the children around the world so that the children can be told the truth about God’s son, Jesus Christ.”

The Importance of Children

I asked him why children were important to him.

He replied, “Jesus loves children and he told his disciples to ‘let the

children come to him.’ Jesus said, ‘Unless we have faith like a child, we cannot enter the kingdom of Heaven.’

"So children are important and there are so many children that are suffering. They’re in poverty and live in war and famine areas. We also help children that have been abused, children that have no hope and I want them to have the hope that we have, that’s the hope of being with God in heaven one day.”

Dad at 90

I then asked him how his father was doing.

“He’s doing well and has just celebrated his 90th birthday,” he said. “He was recently in the hospital after tripping over his dog, but other than that, he’s fine.”

Operation Christmas Child has collected and hand-delivered more than 61 million shoe box gifts to hurting kids in 130 countries since 1993.

Note: I would like to thank Robin Frost for transcribing this interview.

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