Biblica has a global partnership with Samaritan’s Purse (SP) who print millions of New Testaments and Bible portions for their Operation Christmas Child (OCC) programme worldwide using our NIrV text. Having seen the need for children’s ministry resources on the ground, Biblica West Africa decided to partner with OCC Ghana to help channel some of these resources to churches, especially in the rural areas of Ghana.
The programme consists of Christmas gift boxes containing clothes, shoes, toys and educational materials, a portion called ‘The Greatest Gift’, a discipleship programme called ‘The Greatest Journey’, and New Testaments. Last year we mobilized six churches at Tapa Amanya in the Oti region of Ghana where 424 children heard the gospel and received Christmas gifts. This year we expanded the programme to include training for the children’s ministry workers, New Testaments and ‘The Greatest Journey’ programme, at Tapa Amanfrom, also in the Oti region We provided Christmas gift boxes to 450 children, 150 ‘The Greatest Gift’ portions, and enrolled 50 children in ‘The Greatest Journey’ classes in ten churches. We also trained ten children’s ministry workers and appointed a coordinator to supervise the programme.
The distribution centre is always a scene of chaotic joy and excitement. One volunteer said, “I’ve never seen children this happy in my entire life”. Another said, “The most enduring scene for me is seeing so many groups of boys playing football with their new balls immediately after the distribution … I’m glad I got to be part of this”. We are hoping to keep growing this programme in the coming years as SP-OCC seeks credible partners and they see Biblica as such. We are grateful for this unique opportunity to be a downstream beneficiary of our own upstream radical generosity. The current update from the Assemblies of God at Tapa Amanfrom is that their children have finished the entire course of 12 lessons in ‘The Greatest Journey’ programme. The coordinator will go and distribute New Testaments to the participants soon.
