Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Helping Hands

My sincere apologies for not posting this past week - Miles and I were away. Also, I will not be adding content for following two weeks as well, but posts should resume after that.

At today's OCC Women's Meeting - held at Rose's place, we enjoyed a presentation by Vi on behalf of the Canadian Food for Children, Okanagan Division.


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Click on picture to visit an information

page about the Canadian Food for Children

Vi gave us a background of this valuable ministry and her experience having served for the past ten years. She showed us many ways in which our women might assist in providing various items to help children in many countries. Many of the items are common sense and recyclable and we are encouraged to bundle them into "kits" - eg:

Hospital Boxes - sheets, towels, pillow cases, light blankets, bandages, laundry and hand soap.

Earthquake Barrels - Plastic for ground sheets, blankets, jackets, sweaters, candles and matches, soap, towels, dishes, candy.

Carpenter Kit - Work clothes for man, tape measures, hammers, hand saws, screwdrivers, squares, files and rasps, axes, chisels, wrenches, nails, screws, nuts and bolts, lumber.

So you can see that these "kits" vary from simple ones, to ones which might enable someone to start a business. What I appreciated is that so many of the items can be something you might recycle from your own household, pick up from yard sales or gather from friends and neighbours.


vi

Hand Sewn Bag

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Rehydration Kit - Salt, Sugar, Sippy-Cup, pkgs of sugar

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Hand knitted baby items


We are encouraged to knit, sew - whatever we might have a talent for and can help with! Nice to have our hands busy.

As we already take part in the Shoeboxes for Samaritan's Purse, we have experience in doing this sort of thing. This will complement this ministry for us - and enable us to gather more things that might get overlooked because they might not be "brand new". Also, we are able to visit the local warehouse for the Canadian Food for Children, Okanagan Division in Penticton for a tour and can volunteer there too.

This is a non-Governmental Organization. It is completely staffed by volunteers. They operate on donations from groups and individuals. They pay no salaries. They seldom have containers go astray, having strict red tape protocol and designated receivers in each country who are working with the people and who provide feedback letters and photographs.


"if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully."

Romans 12:18


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Welcome to Jussi and Leena, arriving to shepherd and join our flock very soon!


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Next Women's Meeting - Tuesday, March 23rd - mark it on your calendar.

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