Kids and Youth Faith Formation Classes – are collecting toothbrushes, toothpaste, dental floss, band aids, vitamins, Beanie Babies, small toys, stickers, crayons, small tablets or notepads, to deliver to the communities in the Philippians for when the healthcare providers and lay-support workers get there in February 2012. We learned that most families served walk from their homes miles away and stand in line for hours, like we stand in line for concerts and movies, and store sales – to get teeth pulled, abbesses drained, stitches, vaccinations, their annual toothbrush and toothpaste and their one small toy or stuffed animal.

Kids and Youth Faith Formation Classes – are collecting toothbrushes, toothpaste, dental floss, band aids, vitamins, Beanie Babies, small toys, stickers, crayons, small tablets or notepads, to deliver to the communities in the Philippians for when the healthcare providers and lay-support workers get there in February 2012. We learned that most families served walk from their homes miles away and stand in line for hours, like we stand in line for concerts and movies, and store sales – to get teeth pulled, abbesses drained, stitches, vaccinations, their annual toothbrush and toothpaste and their one small toy or stuffed animal.

United Methodist have always believed in and supported public education. Our founder John Wesley believed everyone had a right to be educated and the education was a resource necessary to use one of our basic gifts – our ability to reason and understand. “Sunday School,” so named because those who could not or were not allowed to, be educated due to social class, income, or work, came to Sunday worship, and were taught to read using the one book the Church had – The Holy Bible. One way we support our local elementary school Buri Buri Elementary School is by saving and giving to the school our “Box Tops for Education” Please clip yours, and put them in the basket in the entryway. The office staff or the pastor will deliver them to the school office. Some manufacturers: Betty Crocker, Nabisco, General Mills, Pillsbury, Avery.

Once a month we deliver sundry items to the Grace Covenant Church in SSF for their “Free Distribution Center” for the poor and income deprived. We chose to collect sundry items because these items were not part of any distribution center and many of them are very expensive, often go unsupplied in people’s homes and often people then go without and/or misuse the other products to substitute. We believe that if we see these as necessary items for our homes, others less fortunate ought to have them in their homes. Please bring sundry items (laundry soap, toothbrushes & paste, razors, etc.), and place them in the “Giving Generously Barrel” set outside our Worship Center. We currently have one volunteer, or the pastor who delivers them before the first Saturday of every month.

We are continually connecting with to serve the nearby elementary school families and children who might be living on the margins for whatever reason. Through the work of the PTA and Principal, we offer 6-8 families to receive Christmas gifts from our faith community with a catch. We want to have Christmas lists of at least 2 items from the children and their parents (the parents/adult caregivers must give their own Christmas list and we wrap those presents and let the parents wrap the presents for their children.) This year’s goal – 12 families.

Through the United Methodist Commission on Relief (UMCOR), we build small health kits directly delivered to communities in crisis, such as to Joplin, MO; Haiti; Palestine, Somalia, Japan, Gulf Coast region of USA. Health care kits include a single bar of soap, a single washcloth and hand towel, a single toothbrush, single comb, single fingernail clipper or metal nail file and $1 for toothpaste purchased at the delivery site. We pack these items in 1-gallon sized plastic bags and shipped to or delivered through our Annual Conference headquarters to a central “checking and transportation center” organized by United Methodist Volunteers in Mission (UMVIM) international program.

We learned about the Global Soap Initiative we our pastor saw CNN Heroes Derrick talk about the non-profit organization that connects with hotelier to collect the small bars of soap removed from guest rooms and get them delivered to the Atlanta, GA-based organization. Once there, volunteers organize the soaps, melt them down, re-form them, cut and wrap them and get them shipped to refugee camps, hospitals, community centers in African communities to be given out to families. Somewhere between 2,000,000-5,000,000 children die annually from preventable diseases – easily preventable by washing with soap. All hotel soaps removed from guest rooms are generally thrown away in landfills in the USA. Our goal is to connect with nearby hotels and begin a recycling program of soaps delivered to Global Soap Initiative.

Two years ago we prepared and offered Saturday hot lunches during the month of November to homeless persons who came to the church location. Some folks came many did not. As it takes a bus ride and walking through a residential community we surmised that both the cost and being “out-of-place” in a residential neighborhood were likely the significant reasons why so few came. This time our goal is to deliver sandwich lunches on a weekly basis for the whole winter season, to the community(ies) of homeless folks. This requires moving beyond simply a delivery program to building a trust relationship with folks who are the most marginalized in our community to allow us to be invited into their temporary homes and communities. It requires on our part a longer, fuller commitment as well.