Dayana smiled while brushing her long, dark hair with a pale, blue comb—a simple item pulled from an Operation Christmas Child shoebox gift packed by someone like you. The comb quickly became one of the 9-year-old’s most precious possessions and an expression of God’s love.
“Of all that was in the box, what I love the most is my beautiful princess comb,” said Dayana. “I feel like a princess when I comb my hair with it!”
Dayana received her shoebox at a church in her village in El Salvador—the same church, where just a year earlier, she and her family were invited and gave their lives to Jesus Christ in repentance and faith. Praise God.
At the Operation Christmas Child outreach event, Dayana and her 5-year-old sister not only heard the Gospel again but were invited to attend The Greatest Journey follow-up discipleship course. Through 12 lessons, they learned more about Jesus, how to follow Him, and how to share Him with others.
On the day the sisters graduated, their mother, Guadalupe, was overjoyed by God’s love for her family. And He wasn’t finished.
Living Water
Like many places that receive Operation Christmas Child shoebox gifts, Dayana’s village faces many serious physical challenges, including a lack of safe drinking water. Their only water source is an untreated mountain spring filled with bacteria and parasites that cause typhoid fever, cholera, and other deadly diseases.
Children, especially those under 5, are most at risk. It’s estimated that children
miss 443 million school days each year because of unsafe drinking water and
inadequate hygiene support.
In addition to Operation Christmas Child, Samaritan’s Purse also works through other projects, such as food, water, and health, to share the Gospel and meet the urgent physical needs of children.
Last year, our local partner installed a Canadian-designed BioSand Water Filter in Dayana’s home. “Every week, we spent 10 dollars buying water. Now, this money that we save is used for my daughter’s studies,” Guadalupe said. “I am grateful for the people who make it possible for God’s love to come into our home.”
As we work with local churches to deliver shoebox gifts this year, Samaritan’s Purse Canada also plans to install 750 household water filters to protect children and their families in El Salvador. Will you join us in praying for hearts to be open to God’s love and the eternal hope of the Gospel? “For I will pour water on him who is thirsty … my spirit on your descendants” (Isaiah 44:3).
