Show Notes
Throughout 2024, God has answered countless prayers around the world. Kristy Graham sat down with staff from across the ministry, who share stories and praises of what they have witnessed. First, Dave Philips, a deputy director for international projects, shares how God helped our team deliver food to those in dire need in Sudan. Initially, this mission seemed impossible, but Dave reminds us that nothing is impossible with God.
“And so, we ended the meeting with prayer and we acknowledged as a team … that this was impossible, and we needed God's help. A couple of days ago, we got the last convoy in. And that was number 15, which was more than double what any of us thought was possible.”—Dave Philips
North American Ministries teams have seen God provide amid the tragedy of Hurricane Helene. Joni Byker, who works with disaster relief volunteers, talked about a recent answered prayer from the field. A woman’s home was slammed by a mudslide, and as volunteers helped, she expressed her worry that her beehives had been wiped out. A volunteer, who happened to be a master beekeeper, was able to check on her bees and ensure that they were alright.
“God really cared about her greatest cares and even the smallest of details, which was how were her bees doing?”—Joni Byker
David Thompson, the senior director for Operation Christmas Child International, told a story about a young man named Alexis in Ecuador. The Lord placed it on Alexis’ heart to share the Gospel with kids in his community—specifically, children who are deaf. He decided to ask his teachers to help him learn sign language. Then, his entire youth group got involved, and they committed to learning sign language so they could go and share The Greatest Journey lessons with deaf children who had received shoeboxes. They practiced for three months before the outreach event, and when the day came, they did the whole program in sign language.
“Alexis was so encouraged by how the Lord touched his heart … and how he was moved to pray, and then how the Lord had given him that answer to focus on the kids who couldn't hear physically, but could hear through the sign language, the Gospel.”—David Thompson
In Cambodia, Bethany Densham, the program manager who helps coordinate and lead life-changing cataract and cleft lip trips, saw many patients come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior. This was all because God had orchestrated it so that patients were housed in churches after surgery, which allowed pastors to spend more time with them.
“But each [patient] got to hear the Gospel. Each one of them got to be prayed with. They all received such loving care from not just the churches and the pastor, but the Samaritan's Purse staff who was able to go in the evenings and sit with the people and really love on them.”—Bethany Densham
We thank God for His goodness and these answered prayers in 2024. If you’d like to keep up to date with more stories from On the Ground, please visit samaritanspurse.org.
God answers prayers, and the Bible tells us that we can pray about anything and everything, bringing our requests to Him. He hears us and He knows us. Kristy Graham talks with staff from across the ministry about how they have seen the faithfulness of God and witnessed prayers answered. We rejoice about what God has done in and through Samaritan’s Purse in 2024.
Resources
Listen to Hope in “Heartache: Hurricane Helene” to hear Kristy Graham speak with Samaritan’s Purse staff about the uniqueness of the response and how in a seemingly hopeless situation, God gave a peace that cannot be shaken.
Learn more about Operation Christmas Child.
Listen to “Opening Doors in Israel and Gaza” to hear more about Samaritan’s Purse response in the region.