This Sunday and next we will collect the first special offering of the year for the broader church. This offering benefits Week of Compassion, the disaster relief ministry of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). [I know, it's a terrible name, implying that we only care about disasters one week out of 52. I didn't come up with it. Eventually, I trust that it will change.]
The theme for this year's offering is "Where is Your Treasure?" The theme is based on two senses of treasure: 1) money/wealth and 2) the inherent value of every person. Recognizing that every person is a child of God, and thus deserving of respect, it asks where we invest our treasure, our money. If you want a better explanation, here is a letter from Amy Goff, the executive director of Week of Compassion, about this year's theme.
If that's a little to philosophical for you (and I have to admit, it seems too theoretical to me), here's a link to something much more practical. This is the list of places that have received emergency support in the past week, and since the beginning of the year. The needs are great, and the support offered is very real.
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I confess to being a touch disheartened here. There is so much need, greatly in excess of relief applied and likely in excess of relief reasonably available. Large broad-source incidents (e.g., hurricanes) and very large point-source incidents (e.g., WTC) are easy to see and concentrate the need in a convenience fashion. That is, you can send lots of assets into a designated area and meet lots of needs.
We are much, much less effective at meeting more diffuse needs. I was talking to a lady a couple of months ago who lives up a hollow in Marion County. One of her problems was that she could either sell the calf to meet a medical need now, or keep it and feed the children next year.
I merely toss this into the mix - I have no answers.
R
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