It was an ordinary day in 1978 when Pat Robertson announced on Live TV, “I’ve got a surprise!” That was the start of what would become one of the greatest humanitarian organizations in the world: Operation Blessing.
Over the past 45 years, Operation Blessing has brought food, water, medical care, and other relief to people in need all around the world and right here in the U.S.A.
Barbara Johnson, Pat’s former long-time secretary and close confidant, remembers the moment Operation Blessing came to be.
“The first any one of us knew anything about it was the morning he came in and announced it on The 700 Club,” Johnson remembers.
Robertson took the CBN staff and his co-host Ben Kinchlow completely by surprise during that November 14, 1978, broadcast of The 700 Club.
“There are a lot of people in this audience who may be in need of food, who need shelter, who need clothing. There are also a lot of people in our audience who have an extra suit, more food than they need, extra shelter, something they can provide to those people. So why don’t we put them all together?” asked Robertson.
That idea became known as Operation Blessing and soon grew into one of the country’s largest humanitarian organizations, even catching the attention of President Ronald Reagan during the January 1983 National Religious Broadcasters Convention.
“CBN, The 700 Club’s Operation Blessing, they’ve given nearly two and half million dollars to more than 8,500 churches. This money is then matched by the local churches,” President Reagan remarked.
Forty-five years later, Operation Blessing continues to touch lives around the world providing hunger relief, clean water, medical care and disaster relief to countless communities in desperate need.
“We’ve been making an impact on the lives of millions of people in more than 90 countries and territories, including the United States,” said Operation Blessing Senior Director of Disaster Relief Anthony Lloyd.
When disasters hit, Operation Blessing is often the first to respond and the last to leave.
“Our OB teams continue to provide medical assistance and micro-enterprise projects in earthquake-hit Turkey and distribute food supplies to communities in Guam following the devastating Typhoon Mawar,” said Peter Kairuz, President of Operation Blessing Philippines.
Meanwhile, OB work in Ukraine continues more than a year after war started there.
“We are the hands of mercy of Jesus in this time,” Diego Traverso, director of Operation Blessing International Disaster Relief, told CBN News.
Here in the United States, wherever disaster strikes, Operation Blessing jumps into action, bringing with them an army of volunteers and supplies to meet needs.
“Last year alone, Operation Blessing helped over 300 families living in the United States recover from natural disaster,” Lloyd told CBN News. “Operation Blessing is also delivered over a million pounds of urgent disaster relief supplies to those families who are in desperate need right here at home.”
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Robertson says the inspiration for starting Operation Blessing came from the words of Isaiah 58.
“It says if you draw out your bread to the poor, if you look after the hungry, if you cloth the naked, if you take the homeless into your house, He says then, this is what I’m going to do for you: I’m going to answer your prayers, you’re gonna call out and I’m going to answer you; your righteousness will go before you and the Glory of the Lord will be your rear guard and I’m gonna look after you,” Robertson told viewers during a 1997 broadcast of The 700 Club.
For Operation Blessing, it’s more than just meeting physical needs.
“OB delivers something even more profound, the Good News of God’s boundless love,” Kairuz told CBN News from his office in Manila, Philippines. “It is this message of love that ignites a spark of hope within the hearts of those in desperate situations, reminding them that they are not alone in their struggles.”
For more than four decades and counting, OB continues to be a strategic force in compassionate relief.
“What an incredible legacy that is,” remarked Mark McClendon with Operation Blessing Indonesia. “It’s all traced back to the passion and the vision of our founder Pat Robertson and his dream of having a world-class humanitarian ministry that would be used by God to bring the Kingdom of God and the love of God to millions of people around the world.”
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