GFA World Celebrates 38 Years of Serving Alongside Local Churches

St. Cyprian BEC receives Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes for children around the world, while GFA World Canada celebrates their anniversary

STONEY CREEK, Ontario -- November 14-20 marked this year’s National Collection Week for Operation Christmas Child (OCC) shoeboxes. St. Cyprian Believers Eastern Church (BEC) (www.bechurch.ca) was proud to once more serve as an OCC collection centre for Stoney Creek. Also, GFA World Canada (www.gfa.ca) celebrated their 38th anniversary on November 19th.

Every year during National Collection Week, churches across Canada partner with Samaritan’s Purse. During this week, gift filled shoeboxes that have been packed as a part of Samaritan’s Purse’s Operation Christmas Child, are gathered at churches serving as collection centres. At the end of the week, the boxes are taken to regional collection centres to be shipped to Calgary, AB. There, they are processed before being sent to needy children around the world.

As St. Cyprian BEC shares a building with the GFA World office, we were proud to work together to serve as an OCC collection centre. This is the fifth year that we have worked with Samaritan’s Purse in this capacity, and we were excited to receive our largest number of boxes yet! Through the generosity of our community, we were able to send over 1050 shoeboxes to be processed and sent to children in need! This is a 30% increase from last year, and a 17% increase from our previous record!

Several local churches brought the boxes they had collected, and many individuals came by as well. The OCC drop-off coordinator expressed his joy in being able to volunteer with Sameritan’s Purse. “It’s wonderful to greet donors while helping with Operation Christmas Child” He said. “People are so often enthusiastic and happy to help these children.” For some, participation in OCC would have been impossible without our drop-off location.

Bringing extra joy to collection week, GFA World Canada celebrated their 38th year of service on November 19! We praise God for the many different opportunities He has given us to serve. Working with local believers in 18 different countries, we have helped provide 39 million people with safe, clean drinking water. Also, 142,000 children have been helped through our child sponsorship program. And, in 2021 alone, no less than 163,300 families were helped through income-generating or quality-of-life gifts. A staff photo was taken to commemorate the anniversary.

For the last 38 years we have been working with passionate, faithful, and generous people across Canada. With their help, we have assisted local churches in needy areas with the resources they need to share God’s love. Thank you for being a part of it all!