OPERATION BLESS ING INTERNATIONALDECEMBER 2014

Blessingsoperationblessing.org

Hope in Every Season

Miriam and her family hold tight to their faith in an IDP camp

in Northern Iraq{ P A G E 8 }

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You have likely already finished your Christmas shopping and chosen a

thoughtful gift for each of the people you love. I urge you to buy just one

more gift; this one for people whom you do not know and, most likely,

will never meet.

In so many of His teachings, Jesus made it clear that we are to share our blessings

with the poor. Holiday festivities remind me of something Jesus said while attending

a banquet:

“When you put on a banquet, don’t invite your friends, brothers, relatives, and

rich neighbors. For they will invite you back, and that will be your only reward.

Instead, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. Then at the resurrec-

tion of the righteous, God will reward you for inviting those who could not repay

you.” (Luke 14:12-14 NLT)

Through Operation Blessing, you have the perfect means to "invite the poor to

your banquet."

By joining Club Bless this year, you will make an enormous impact by blessing

poor people all over the world all year long. Learn about it at ob.org/ClubBless.

The steady support provided by Club Bless partners enables OBI to respond as

soon as urgent needs develop. While other charities struggle to fund new efforts, we

are already at the scene helping. A perfect example is the Ebola crisis. We learned of

the outbreak months before it became big news, sent someone to Liberia, discovered

that chlorine was already in short supply and put five new chlorine generators on a

plane. We couldn't have moved so quickly if not for Club Bless funding.

Thank you for your support this past year, and thank you for considering just one

more gift by joining Club Bless today! Merry Christmas and may God bless you

abundantly in the new year.

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4 Room to Grow Operation Blessing brings hope to Isabella and her family in Guatemala through agricultural training

6 A Bountiful Blessing A young family overcomes hunger thanks to an Operation Blessing-supported food pantry in Alabama

11 Bless a Child this Christmas Some of the best gifts don’t come wrapped and tied with a bow

12 Top Highlights of 2014 See what your partnership helped accomplish this year!

16 Year-End Gifts That Matter Make a tax-deductible gift by midnight on December 31 and help bring lifesaving relief to those who need it most

Inside this issue Cover PAGE 8

Hope in Every Season Miriam and her family hold tight to their faith in an IDP camp in Northern Iraq

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GUATEMALA

Isabella already had a family of her own when she took in her eight younger sib-lings after her mother died. With several children under the age of

13 in their care, Isabella and her husband worked hard to provide for their new family — but between his meager income and the small amount of money she made making tortillas and selling handmade dolls at the market, it just wasn’t enough.

However, her giving spirit never wavered, and Isabella even started taking care of her infant niece while her sister recovered from a severe injury.

But there were many nights when Isabella would work long hours and come home to hungry children because there wasn’t enough

food to eat.“They also became sick,”

Isabella said, “which made it very hard, knowing that their sickness was getting worse and I would have to choose between buying food or medicine.”

Then, Operation Blessing started a farming project in

Isabella’s community that taught her and other women in the village how to grow nutritious vegetables they can use to feed their fami-lies and also sell at the market for additional income.

Operation Blessing brings hope to Isabella and her

family in Guatemala through agricultural training

ROOM to GROWIsabella and her children grow nutritious vegetables in raised beds in their backyard.

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With only a few square feet available to her, Isabella didn’t have enough room to grow a traditional garden, but after learning about raised beds and other innovative and space-saving techniques, she is now able to grow vegetables for her family in her own small yard — a space she generously shares with six other families.

“God uses people to help others, and you never imagine who's going to come to your house and say, ‘Here are some plants — help yourself,’” Isabella said. “I know things have been very tough, but I be-lieve that things will get better. They are already better than before.” ◆

ROOM to GROW

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With a 6-month-old baby girl and a wife to take care of, Chris-topher worked hard to pay the bills and put food on the table, holding down a full-time job fabricating granite countertops

during the day and working a part-time job at night.When Christopher’s company was forced to scale back due to the

rough economy and he was let go, Christopher worried that he would not

ALABAMA

A young family overcomes hunger thanks to an Operation Blessing-supported food pantry

A Bountiful Blessing

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be able to make ends meet while he looked for another job.

To help cover rent and other bills, he tried selling some of their household items on the internet — and even made the difficult decision to sell his wed-ding band — but it just wasn’t enough.

Then Christopher and his wife Rachael learned about an Operation Blessing-supported food pantry in their area, and there they received enough food and supplies to help them get by.

“Being used to having enough money to pay bills and provide food, diapers and things for the baby — losing my full-time job has just been a real struggle,” said Christopher. “I don’t know what we would have done without the help we have received. When you wake up in the morning and you don’t know how you are going to provide for your family, it really means a lot.”

Thanks to Operation Blessing and its partners, thousands of families across America are receiving the food they need to fill their empty cupboards and overcome hunger this holiday season. ◆

"The food that we have received from Operation Blessing has been tremendous."

–––––– Rachael ––––––

Emma, 6 months

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MiRiam ANd HeR fAmiLY hold Tight TO THeir

faitH in AN idp CAMP in NoRtherN iRAq

IRAQ

HOPe in eVeRY seAsON

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As the flickering lights changed from red to green, Miriam stood outside her family’s tent, holding 3-year-old Yusef in her arms and gazing up at a pieced

together cross covered in Christmas lights. The cross, crudely constructed from a piece

of foam packaging she had found in the trash, rusty wire and lights, was a symbol of hope for Miriam, who — like so many others in her Internally Displaced People or IDP camp — had

been through so much.Persecuted for their faith, Miriam’s family and

thousands of others fled to the Kurdistan region of Iraq, barely escaping the brutality of Islamic militant group ISIS and leaving behind every-thing they owned. Now Miriam’s family lives with 100,000 other displaced Christians and other minorities in makeshift camps, church halls and Continued on pg. 10

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HOPe in eVeRY seAsON

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abandoned buildings.These displaced families de-

pend on the compassion of others for even the most basic necessities like food and water, but despite the circumstances and their uncertain future, Miriam and many others still have hope, holding tight to their faith and their families.

Operation Blessing is provid-ing critical relief to several IDP camps in the Kurdish-protected city of Erbil, distributing food staples such as rice, noodles, tea, beans, powdered

milk and more. Teams also served meals to displaced families and are delivering stoves, blankets, diapers and truckloads of addi-tional critical supplies to camps set up on public lands and in churches outside of Erbil. ◆

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Living in a makeshift IDP camp inside a church func-

tion hall with 60 other families, 18-year-old Onassis realized that many of the children, torn from everything they had ever known, needed a bit of hope and happiness. So, with the help of some friends, she started organizing games for the kids in the camp.

To support her efforts, Operation Blessing provided brand new toys for all of the children, and teams even helped Onassis and her friends throw a special party and dis-tribute the toys to the delight of the camp residents of all ages.

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Three-year-old Gabrielle shouldn’t have to go to bed with an empty, aching stomach. And thanks to gifts like yours, now she doesn’t have to.

After her father lost his job, friends like you helped put food on their table through Operation Blessing’s Hunger Strike Force.

Will you bless more little ones like Gabrielle right here at home and all around the world this Christmas?

Please send your gift with the enclosed form or visit operationblessing.org today.

Bless a child in need this ChristmasGive a gift to a child who doesn’t

expect it – but desperately needs it.

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Top Highlights of 2014

Some of the best gifts don’t come wrapped and tied with a bow.

February Vulnerable children in impov-erished villages in Lesotho received a nutritious meal every day thanks to Operation Blessing and partner organiza-tion Faith Foundation.

January Girls in Nepal are rescued from trafficking at the Nepal/India border and brought to safe homes where they receive counseling, skills training and more.

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March In Peru, Sandra and her children

live in a home built on stilts to

avoid flooding during the rainy

season, but it has collapsed

twice during recent storms —

once when they were inside. So

Operation Blessing constructed

a new house for her family and

even helped expand Sandra’s

food business.

April After Typhoon Haiyan devastated the Philippines last year, Opera-tion Blessing has continued work-ing in the village of Pagnamitan — rebuilding the village school, providing daily meals for children, conducting a free medical clinic, constructing transitional homes and even helping fishermen get back to work.

May As a painful virus gripped the na-

tion of Haiti, Operation Blessing

provided much-needed medicine

to help fight Chikungunya in

rural communities.

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June After unprecedented flooding devastated Pensacola, Fla., Operation Blessing disaster relief teams aided victims with relief supplies and cleanup help — additionally more than 1,200 volunteers served over 6,800 hours to help affected residents.

August As Ebola continued to spread in West Africa, Operation Blessing teams aided the fight against the virus in Liberia with much-needed protective gear and supplies, as well as several chlorine generators.

Meanwhile, as conflict escalated along the Gaza border, Operation Blessing provided portable bomb shelters for school children in Israel and supplies to restock shelters in the region.

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July As desperate families and chil-dren flooded the U.S./Mexico border, Operation Blessing helped bring hope to families in their own countries through skills training and microen-terprise initiatives. Teams also helped families returning to Honduras get back on their feet.

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September /October When ISIS militants threatened the lives of Christians and other minorities in Iraq, fami-lies fled to Kurdistan. There, Operation Blessing delivered emergency supplies including food staples, diapers, blankets, stoves and more.

November Operation Blessing partnered with the NFL’s Washington Redskins for the annual Harvest Feast food distribution, providing more than 87,000 pounds of food and supplies to an estimated 3,000 families in need in Washington, D.C.

December Operation Blessing worked with impoverished families in Guatemala through a special agriculture training center, where many are learning techniques like drip irrigation and vertical planting to help grow nutritious vegetables in confined spaces.

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Year-End Gifts That Matter

Hunger, sickness, poverty. These are what threaten the lives of vulnerable children and families every day around the world.

Make a tax-deductible gift by midnight on December 31 and help bring lifesaving relief such as food, clean water, medicine and more to those who need it most.

Here are three easy ways to make your year-end gift:– O N L I N E –

Give a secure gift by visiting:

operationblessing.org

– P H O N E – Call toll-free:

1.800.730.2537 Monday – Saturday 8 am – 11 pm EST

or Sunday 8 am – 6 pm EST

– M A I L – Send your gift postmarked by

December 31 to: Operation Blessing

P.O. Box 2636 Virginia Beach, VA

23450

Copyright © 2014 by Operation Blessing International, P.O. Box 2636, Virginia Beach, VA 23450. For more information, call (800) 730-2537 or visit our website at operationblessing.org