Dinner with Friends

Last night I helped serve at the fundraising dinner for Highland County's Evangelistic Association's emergency needs funds (which provide assistance to stranded travelers and those who need help with expenses for shelter and utilities).

Organized by friend Mark Waybright at Word of Faith Church, the dinner served more than food, as these things usually do here.

With not many restaurants, the dinners that raise money also provide a space and time for folks to come together and share a meal.

People, all kinds of folk, have the chance to come together and help make a worthy cause a reality.

Churches come together in unity to serve their community.

Great food ideas (especially in the donated desserts) pop up all over the place.

Warmth for the spirit as well as the body is provided against the cold of out there.

Hours and hours of work and full bellies later, the dinner raised more than $2,000 towards the 2013 budget, which, in the absence of FEMA funds again this year, makes it possible to help those who need it when they need it.

If you'd like to make a contribution, here's what you can do:


1. If you live in Highland County, donate on your electric bill Many will have noticed that they have the option to pay extra money on their electric bill from Shenandoah Valley Electric Co-Op as a donation to emergency utility assistance.  In Highland County, the Association’s Emergency Fund receives those donations.  Individuals who wish to donate on a regular basis can very easily use this option simply by adding a few dollars per month to their electric bill and checking the appropriate box on their statement.

2. Make a donation directly to the Evenaglistic Association, c/o Don Ferrell, Treasurer, P. O. Box 143, Monterey, VA 24465.

3. If you want to make a tax-deductible contribution, make your donation to your local church to give to the Association.

Driving in Circles

Just a small town girl . . . I never thought those words would apply to me.  But they do.  Yesterday, I, along with hundreds of others, spent time helping with a fundraising dinner for a little girl in need of heart surgery whose parents’ health insurance will not cover the cost.  So here in smalltown America, someone organized a dinner and everybody came, bringing dishes and donations and hands to help.  The ladies here have a long-established rhythm born of years of experience in the industrial-sized kitchen where such things happen.  Yet they welcome me in and show me their ways.  I become their sous chef apprentice, doing as they direct, trying to help and when I can’t, to stay out of the way.  It’s a grace-filled place, that kitchen.  Every now and then, someone new who comes in comes bossy.  But instead of putting her in her place, these ladies just step back and make room for her ways.  How I wish I had their class.  At the end of the night, we all went home tired, yet most managed to make it to church this morning.  Their staying power puts me to shame.

Just before I went over to start helping yesterday, I checked FB and there was a message from Tiffany, No more stop lights in Highland!  I grinned in appreciation.  The 18-month-long bridge project has come to an end and the temporary stop light, the source of much complaining, wonderment, and perceived inconvenience, is gone.  So with a little extra time between the two church services this morning, I drove past the second church and crossed our new bridge, breezing by the now colorless stop light, took a right around the store and cheated through Obaugh’s parking lot to come back out on the road back and recross the bridge, grinning like a fool as I passed with nary a pause at the famed stop light now no more.  Oh, happy day!

Yes, I am a small town gal who cruises in circles just to enjoy not having to stop for a light and who loves that she gets to help sometimes just by being there.


______________
If you’d like to donate to the Ella fund, you can make a check payable to Hiner Church of the Brethren and mail it to Hiner Church, c/o Charles Varner, 6527 Highland Turnpike, McDowell, VA 24458.

Ella, who is five years old, has a heart defect which requires surgery.  As I said above, her parents’ health insurance will not cover the surgery because they say her condition is congenital.  The surgeon’s cost will be anywhere from $25,000 to $40,000.  The Affordable Care Act provision regarding pre-existing conditions does not go into effect until 2014.  The dinner and other fundraisers have and will continue to raise a goodly sum, but more is needed.

Donate 25¢ to UNESCO

When people realize you don't share all their habits, 

they suspect you don't share their values either.  -John H. Richardson

And that’s a problem.  –Me

UNESCO has a problem and we can help.

The Congress of the United States passed a law back in the 1990's to the effect that any organization recognizing Palestine would receive no funding from the US.

Turns out that UNESCO (an organization of the UN) members voted last year to allow Palestine to be a UNESCO member, which means that funding from the United States, to the tune of more than $60 million per year, will cease.

UNESCO, which stands for United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, promotes education worldwide, funding teachers in areas that otherwise could not afford them . . . preserving world heritage sites . . . developed the Tsunami warning system so that those in danger from the devastating effects of tsunamis could have the benefit of an early warning . . . has helped educate roughly 1.5 billion people . . . promotes freedom of expression around the world, giving voice to the voiceless . . . alleviates poverty . . . is establishing a World Digital Library in association with the Library of Congress. . . trains professionals in the safeguarding of water resources . . . the Global Ocean Observing System monitors the oceans in real time. . . works for social inclusion of marginalized groups around the world . . . establishes community learning centers focusing on literacy and continuing education for the marginalized and the poor . . . works toward gender equality around the world . . . reduces the impact of natural disasters with early warning technology and retrofitting of buildings to make them more resistant to the effects of disasters . . . supports programs which work toward peace and understanding across national, cultural and other divides . . . and more besides . . .

Regardless of how we feel individually or collectively about the Israel-Palestine conflict, regardless of whether or not it is appropriate for a nation to withhold funding from a UN organization to express its political will, regardless of whether we like the United Nations or not, the fact remains that UNESCO does important work from which every nation of the world benefits, directly and indirectly, and they need funding in order to continue that work.  Without that funding, real people living in real time right now will lose access to education, to clean water, to early warnings about impending disasters, will die.

Thus I offer a solution to the conundrum: while the government of the United States remains free to express its political concern and displeasure over the allowing of Palestine at the table of UNESCO, in order to continue its work, the people of the United States can all simply donate 25 cents towards their efforts.  It’s a win-win: the United States preserves the integrity of its position and UNESCO continues its life-saving and -preserving work.

There are over 300 million people in the US.  If we alone, let alone others around the world, would chip in a quarter each, more than $75 million would be added to UNESCO coffers.

So how about it?  Got any change you can spare?

If so, go to UNESCO donation and make your donation.