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I have been spending some time working through A Book of Hours from the writings and reflections of Thomas Merton. During this week, I have become more and more certain of one thing, and Merton helped strengthen this belief. Purpose has been a buzz word, especially with churches attempting to reach out those who are not in church. Book shave been published to tell us what our purpose is. The topic of purpose isn’t a new thing. So here it is. You want purpose? You got it!

We were created in the image of God. God is Love. Therefore, the purpose of our existence is to embody love. True, committed love for EVERYONE! True, committed love struggles to love through every circumstance. True, committed love does not rest in the presence of injustice and discrimination. True, committed love holds to love everyone at all times & in all ways.

Now that’s purpose.

There is a dire need for health kits in Haiti. Local churches are asked to prepare as many of the kits as they can. Bill Carr, Disaster Recovery Coordinator for the Memphis Conference of the United Methodist Church, says congregations should have their kits prepared by January 31 and ready to transport to the designated district pickup points on Monday, February 1. All kits will then be boxed by Volunteer in Mission teams and shipped together to Sager-Brown, our UMCOR depot in Louisiana.

The following pickup points have been selected for the Memphis Conference:

Germantown UMC, 2331 S. Germantown Rd., Germantown, TN

Brownsville District office, 1489 E. Main St., Brownsville, TN

Union City First UMC – 420 E. Main, Union City, TN

Aldersgate UMC – 1050 N. Parkway, Jackson, TN

Mayfield First UMC – 214 S. 8th St., Mayfield, KY

Paris District office – 810 E. Wood St., Paris, TN

Please let district offices know how many health kits your church has prepared.  If you have any questions, call Bill Carr at 270-816-4824 or 270-556-5221.

If you would prefer to donate money to the Haiti Emergency through the United methodist Church, please donate through your local United Methodist church to UMCOR Advance#418325.  Checks can be put in the church’s offering plate. 100% of gifts made to the Advance will go to help the people of Haiti.

Each health kit must contain the following items in EXACTLY the amounts requested. If the amounts are not exact, they will not fit in plastic bag and may not adhere to the strict rules governing entry into a foreign country.

Health Kit Assembly Instructions
(Health Kit Items Value: $12 per kit) – depending on where you shop!
Place these items inside a sealed one-gallon plastic bag.

1 hand towel (15″ x 25″ up to 17″ x 27″, No kitchen towels)

1 washcloth

1 comb (large and sturdy, not pocket-sized)

1 nail file or fingernail clippers (no emery boards or toenail clippers)

1 bath-size bar of soap (3 oz. and up)

1 toothbrush (single brushes only in original wrapper, No child-size brushes)

6 adhesive plastic strip sterile bandages

$1.00 to purchase toothpaste
(NOTE: UMCOR Sager Brown is now purchasing toothpaste in bulk to be added to health kits before shipping to ensure that the product does not expire before they are sent.)

Important Kit Assembly Information
All items included in kits must be NEW items.

All emergency kits are carefully planned to make them usable in the greatest number of situations. Since strict rules often govern product entry into international countries, it is important that kits contain only the requested items-nothing more.

Do NOT include any personal notes, money or additional materials in the kits. These things must be painstakingly removed and will delay the shipment.

So by now we “think” we know what’s going on in Haiti. I personally have been boycotting regular programming opting for Anderson Cooper’s coverage on the situation in Haiti. I have been motivated to give, and help organize with a couple of local efforts…blah! blah! blah! All the while, there has been someone who has not been as reserved. One person has caught my eye, and my attention on Twitter. If you are on Twitter, I encourage you to follow @ShaunKing. For the past week or so, Shaun’s passion for the hurting and desolate in Haiti has transformed into an all out relief effort that has stemmed from him and other like him. He has conducted Twitter-thons (version of a telethon on Twitter) to raise money to pay for computer equipment to aid relief workers and has secured a team of Neurosurgeons to go and help in Haiti (not to mention raising the money to fly them to Haiti)…Really folks, this has been incredible. He is not alone..I know this. he probably doesn’t want any attention on himself, but more likely on the dying folks in Haiti. In many ways this reminds me of Nehemiah’s role. What broke his heart inspired a vision, and that vision bears a movement. It’s a movement that has directed aid organizations and news outlets to locations within Haiti to get to places of dire need such as Notre dame Orphanage.

Am I writing this as an admirer of one’s tireless effort to help save lives? That is definitely worthy of writing about. But perhaps we should look at this and say to ourselves, “Just because I am thousands of miles away, just because I can’t hop a flight right now, doesn’t mean that I can’t do anything about this situation.” In today’s age, it only takes a keyboard or a text message to be intimately involved in a movement such as this. Some of us can do more; some can’t. Either way…just do something!