How one’s small contribution adds to world-wide disaster relief

 

A collection of UMCOR shirts

photo by Carolyn Hoggard

 

One of my reasons for not rejoining the Chancel Choir at one of the churches I served several decades ago is because of the early hour of the services. Now that I’ve retired as a church music leader, I relish my early Sunday mornings.

But on January 3, I made an exception. As one of a 6-person mission team headed to south Louisiana, I managed to get all my gear to the church parking lot at 7:45 that morning. The church had rented a mini-van with 3 sets of seats. Laura, the youngest, began the driving. Diane was fingered as the navigator, so she got the other front seat. Connie, Kathy, Carolyn and I took turns crawling into the very back seats. The middle seats folded up with a pull on the tabs; everyone had to be out of the way or a finger might get smashed.

Randy kindly lifted the heavy bags into the baggage area and small totes and sacks and boxes were piled or stuffed around them. All set.

Not much traffic that early on Sunday morning, so we zipped along nicely, stopping around Texarkana for a rest period and a fill-up. (The van had a half tank full and had to be returned with a half tank.)

Eight hours and ten minutes later, with Carolyn and Laura alternating as drivers, we pulled into the campus of Sager Brown at Baldwin where the United Methodist Committee on Relief depot (warehouse) sat. I had been there three times before, Kathy, Diane and Carolyn had been once before. Connie and Laura were “newbies.” We were all in for a fantastic, but hard-working week. We found out WHAT we’d be doing at the Monday morning orientation meeting at the depot.

That week’s work was to verify health kits sent in my myriad UM churches. After we’d opened and checked each pack, being sure that all items met the requirements, we restuffed the bags, resealed the baggies and sent them over to the packing table for inclusion into cardboard boxes holding 24 kits each.

Imagine a tall table with 3 stools on each long side, a place to put your feet that wouldn’t reach the floor. In the center of the table were bins of hand towels and washcloths, toothpaste that the depot had purchased with a March 2018 use-by date (did you know toothpaste had an expiration date?), toothbrushes, combs, nail clippers & files, band-aids, boxed soap bars. These were provided by the depot to replace any items in kits that didn’t pass muster.

Our depot assistant Geretta expertly showed us how to pack the kits and what things were NOT allowed: militaristic, patriotic, or holiday motifs or themes.

Some of the items to be replaced were hand towels with stains or that were kitchen towels; washcloths with stains or that were dishcloths; combs that “zinged” when you ran your finger down the teeth, those that could be bent nearly double, or pocket combs and those with odd-type teeth. You’d be surprised at how many kinds of combs are out there.

All soaps except Ivory and Jergens were allowed—it had been noticed that those two brands contained so much moisture that they sometimes melted onto the entire kit, especially when the boxes were stored for a period of time; toothbrushes had to be boxed, but could not have a local dentist’s name and phone number affixed. Nor could the packaging contain a flag; toenail clippers had been added to the regular clippers and/ or nail files—one or the other; and six regular-sized band-aids—not five, not seven or ten, but six.

Lay out the hand towel, center the washcloth (I placed mine diagonally) on the towel, lay a comb in the center, top that with a toothbrush. Place box of soap above the comb, add band-aids and clippers on top, and lay a tube of toothpaste on top of the toothbrush.

Pull the top corner of the washcloth tightly toward you, lay the opposite corner, also pulled tightly, on top of it, pull other corners toward the center, then begin wrapping the hand towel around the center pack, rolling it all the way up. Fold the ends of the towel toward the center until your pack looks like a soft brick.

Stuff it long ways back into the gallon baggie from whence it came, roll it toward you, pushing out as much air as possible before sealing it. Fold it over, pass it to a runner—Walter, in this case—who had a plastic clothes basket and went to all six tables collecting finished kits.

During the week, nearly 6,000 kits were verified, packed into boxes, the boxes put into larger bins which were labeled, shrink wrapped and loaded onto shelves in the massive warehouse by Freddy and his forklift. There they will stay until some official calls from anywhere in the world with requests for aid.

Doesn’t that sound like something you might want to be involved in?

In the evenings, we could work jigsaw puzzles or in our case, play Mexican Train dominoes. Guess who won this game?

Conversations

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			Important mainly because of the people in the conversation. Click to teach Gmail this conversation is not important.	Patricia A. Laster (2), [Ozark Highlands of Missouri] New comment on Mast production., 11/12/15, Allison Vaughn has left a new comment on the post "Mast production": Congratulations on. Patricia A. Laster (2)	[Ozark Highlands of Missouri] New comment on Mast production. - Allison Vaughn has left a new comment on the post "Mast production": Congratulations on		11/12/15
			Click to teach Gmail this conversation is important.	Ozark Highlands of Misso., Ozark Highlands of Missouri, 11/12/15, Ozark Highlands of Missouri Mast production Posted: 11 Nov 2015 04:46 PM PST I spent a small part of. Ozark Highlands of Misso.	Ozark Highlands of Missouri - Ozark Highlands of Missouri Mast production Posted: 11 Nov 2015 04:46 PM PST I spent a small part of		11/12/15
			Important mainly because of the people in the conversation. Click to teach Gmail this conversation is not important.	Claudia Mundell, (no subject), 11/6/15, Dear Pat, I do not have an iPad or tablet. I have computer, laptop, iPhone, and a Kindle Fire. I just. Claudia Mundell	(no subject) - Dear Pat, I do not have an iPad or tablet. I have computer, laptop, iPhone, and a Kindle Fire. I just		11/6/15
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			Important mainly because of the people in the conversation. Click to teach Gmail this conversation is not important.	Sandy, This and that, 11/3/15, Hi Pat, You were so busy at that retreat, and with the columns and memoir, and poetry, I had to. Sandy	This and that - Hi Pat, You were so busy at that retreat, and with the columns and memoir, and poetry, I had to		11/3/15
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