The Liberty Gazette
December 14, 2021
Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely
Here we are, in the Giving Season. This month, we aim to create awareness and present opportunities for you to change lives around the world. This week, we highlight the Christian humanitarian organization, Samaritan’s Purse.
Do you remember the story of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:30-37? After sharing this story, Jesus said, “Go and do likewise.” The story gives a clear picture of God’s desire for us to help those in desperate need, wherever we find them. That is the mission of Samaritan's Purse.
For over 50 years, Samaritan’s Purse has done their utmost to follow Christ’s command by going to the aid of the world’s poor, sick, and suffering. The organization has reached hurting people in countries around the world with food, medicine, and other assistance, and much of the work is accomplished by airplane.
The Samaritan’s Purse DC-8 allows them to respond to global disasters at a moment’s notice. Since it first deployed in April of 2016, the DC-8 has carried more than 5.6 million pounds of cargo on 147 missions around the world.
You may already be familiar with Samaritan’s Purse because of their incredibly generous Shoebox program through Operation Christmas Child, or because you know of Franklin Graham, son of the late Rev. Billy Graham. But Samaritan’s Purse was actually started by someone else.
After visiting suffering children on the Korean island of Koje-do, Bob Pierce wrote in his Bible, “Let my heart be broken with the things that break the heart of God.” This impassioned prayer is what guided him as he founded Samaritan’s Purse in 1970.
Then Pierce came across some courageous women who were living among lepers and orphans in China, sacrificing everything to share Christ’s love. That’s when he received a vision for ministry and dedicated himself to finding and supporting Christians who were caring for the poor and suffering in the distant corners of the world.
In the summer of 1973, Pierce met Franklin Graham, who was then an adventurous young student with a growing heart for world missions. They spent a lot of time together, and in 1975, Graham accompanied Pierce to some of the world's neediest mission fields. He saw the poverty of pagan religions and the utter despair of the people they enslave.
After Bob Pierce died of leukemia in 1978, Franklin Graham took the reins of Samaritan's Purse. Through over 40 years of earthquakes, hurricanes, wars, and famine, Samaritan’s Purse has continued the Biblical example, flying medicine, supplies, food, and personnel all across the globe.
Their DC-8 is also used to send Shoebox gifts to children in some of the hardest-to-reach places—whether deep jungles, city slums, steep mountainsides, or one of 1,000 remote Pacific islands. When you build a Shoebox online, it provides a creative way to share the Good News in remote areas in a culturally sensitive manner.
“Go and do likewise.” No matter where they go or what they do, they offer more than help. They offer hope to suffering people in a broken world.
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