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Haiti Relief Effort: Health Kits10,000 Health Kits For Haiti!God placed a calling on our church to provide 10,000 health kits for distribution in Haiti through the United Methodist Committee On Relief (umcor.org/haiti).
These kits were completed on Sunday, January 24th at the Grace Family Life Center in record time. If you would like to make a donation toward this effort you can make checks payable to "Grace UMC" and write Haiti Relief Kits on the 'for' line. Place any cash donations in an envelope marked "Haiti Relief Kits." You can also visit umcor.org/haiti or 10thousanddoors.org to make a donation directly to the United Methodist Committee On Relief.
For more information you can contact us at 615.754.6034 or email us at helphaiti@graceumc.net.
Click HERE to watch a youtube video on health kits.
Read Risk-Taking Mission and Service leader Ric Rios's story & vision for 10,000 health kits below:"Friends in Jesus, In Mark 4:35-31 Jesus invites his disciples to travel across the sea to an unknown world and blindly follow him. When fears arise he quickly quells them and leaves them in all awe at his power. In much the same way the Lord has provided us an opportunity to follow him blindly with an extreme challenge to help our brothers in Haiti. Someone asked me last night where the 10,000 number for that many relief kits came from. I can honestly tell you that it had to be from God. Standing in front of the congregation on Sunday my brain was saying 1 to 4 thousand, but my lips said 10. I could not believe the words coming from my mouth. Prior to Sunday I was thinking we could possibly build 1,000 to 4,000 kits and that we would be pressed to accomplish that. From the look of shock on the faces of the people in the congregation apparently it had the same effect on them as well. This is the way this project has been since Tuesday--from a conversation where Ron, David and I were trying to figure out what we are supposed to do as a congregation for the brethren in Haiti to the moment we received an email out of the blue from UMCOR telling us what they needed. This, by the way, was within minutes of Ron and I informing the Finance committee that we will fund something, we just did not know what...yet. Within minutes of this, we received the email. The moment we received the email I felt grateful and ashamed at the same time. How dense we had been, that Jesus had to send us an email with specific instructions on what to do. I am just glad that he didn’t draw us something in crayon… or pin a note to our shirts! The response from the congregation and our community has been tremendous. Jesus has cleared all obstacles and this WILL happen. Through generous donations in several areas, we are very close to funding this. If you have not already done so, please give generously this next Sunday. Make your checks out to Grace UMC ; please mark the check with “Haiti relief kits”, if you are giving cash please put it in an envelope marked the same way. We also invite you to be part of this tremendous effort to help the people of Haiti and around the world by helping build the kits. We will be meeting this Sunday from 9AM - Until? in the Grace Family Life Center to assemble these kits. We need everyone’s help! Immediately before or after you have attended the service of your choice and feel the calling, please stop by and lend a hand. If you would like to bring some Scooby snacks to share with the workers, I am sure they will be appreciated. Also note, with the road construction in the Family Life Center Parking lot, we may need to work out a shuttle bus or carpooling from the main church to the FLC. Stay tuned for details. We will be there most all day. Come and go as you please. Wear your “Sunday Work Best” – for this occasion, blue jeans and a t-shirt are perfect (United Methodist Communications will be capturing some of our efforts and has requested we wear Grace shirts or Rethink Church shirts, if you have them. This will show the world that Grace is Rethinking Church - we are outbound, missional, relational and more than just church on Sunday morning). It may even make your neighbors wonder what you are up to on this particular Sunday morning. We look forward to working with you this Sunday.
Ric Rios
Risk-Taking Mission and Service
Grace United Methodist Church
Grace United Methodist Church
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