Last night our LIFE group (that's just another name for a small group for all those who may attend other churches with your own lingo) went to the Canadian Food for the Hungry International. The plan was to help them fold linen that will be sent overseas to hospitals in other countries. Judy, the lady from CFHI, started off by giving us some background information on the organization and what they do. Basically, they send containers (like the really big ones you see on barges and railcars) full of medical supplies, medical equipment, beds, machines, linens (like the ones we folded), etc. to these other countries to help the doctors there provide care for needy people. It's an amazing organization. Judy was a great lady! She has basically devoted herself to this organization and she does amazing work there with adminstration tasks, tracking all the shipments, arranging for medical supplies and pickups all across the province, etc.
With Christmas approaching, CFHI has produced a Gift Catalogue. This catalogue is really cool. It allows you to buy gifs for people in other countries. Not regular gifts like Ipods, cell phones or jewellery, but useful gifts that will greatly enrich the lives of these people. Some gift ideas are a pig, fruit trees, a wheelbarrow, etc. Now that may sound weird, but here's two exerpts from the gift catalogue:
The Gift of a Pig
"Pigs are a favourite animal because, in return for disposing of kitchen garbage as food, they produce manure for the farm, and new piglets each year which can be sold for income or used as a source of meat. A pig can greatly add productivity to a family's agricultural and income-generating activities"
The Gift of a Wheelbarrow
"In hilly rural Rwanda, a wheelbarrow can be the deciding factor in the success of agricultural production. Farmers often live as far as 15km from their fields, and since they travel by foot, carrying a fertilizer or other products in large quantities is next to impossible. Consequently, their farms and their incomes suffer."
I would highly recommend going to their website and browsing through the catalogue to find a gift you can buy this Christmas.
If your LIFE group (or other small group, group of friends, co-workers, enemies or even yourself) want to do something to help out other people, give CFHI a call and Judy will gladly accept any help you are willing to offer. And for you guys out there that like machines, they could really use some help with fixing up some old medical machines (one of our guys in the group calibrated a few weigh scales, I helped him with one) so there is something for everyone.
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2 comments:
i'm trying to get something going like this with the world vision catalogue...but it doesn't seem to be catching on with the church staff...not sure how to go about it...
That's interesting that the church staff don't seem interested. You would think this might be a good way to "Transform our Lives and Transform our Communities". By getting people involved you get them out of their self focused lives. I think the CFHI may catch on a bit more since it is a local thing and people can actually go down to a place and see the operation at work. Maybe we need to bring some catalogues and just leave them at the church info table (easier to ask forgiveness than permission)
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