Pastor Overcomes Personal Tragedy to Help Needy Children

Metro World Child recently announced the launch of Operation Holiday Hope, the international humanitarian organization’s annual campaign to provide Christmas gifts to inner-city children in need.

Through donations of just $10 per child, Operation Holiday Hope will reach nearly 150,000 children in the U.S. and around the world, providing need-based gifts alongside a message of salvation and love.

“Far too many children in New York City and in urban centers around the globe are facing the challenges of poverty, abuse, violence and hopelessness,” says pastor Bill Wilson, founder of Metro World Child. “Giving a child a gift at Christmas—whether it’s a new, wrapped toy or a much-needed hot meal—lets a child know he or she is loved and that there is hope for a brighter future.”

Metro World Child is a faith-based organization that serves nearly 100,000 inner-city children each week with after-school programs, Sunday school services, child sponsorship, personal home visits and special programs like Operation Holiday Hope. The organization is committed to providing hope and building futures for children living in adverse conditions around the world, helping them find a new path through the life-changing love of Christ.

With Operation Holiday Hope, children receive a need-based gift after attending a fun, interactive Sunday school program. Among the more than 121,000 children who received gifts last year were 35,000 children living in New York City’s poorest neighborhoods, who received a new, wrapped toy. For many children, it was the only Christmas gift they received. In other parts of the world, gifts take the form of hot meals where children are hungry or warm socks and boots where winter temperatures are below freezing.

In the past four years, Metro World Child has provided nearly a 1/2 million gifts through Operation Holiday Hope, reaching children in India, Kenya, New York, Philippines,Romania, Somalia and South Africa. As the Operation Holiday Hope 2013 fundraising effort gets underway, Metro World Child asks supporters to visit its website, operationholidayhope.org to donate and help the organization reach even more children this year.