Towels and soap are not usually things that I think about on a regular basis. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I use BOTH of them multiple times each day. They are just among the basic necessities that I have in life and take for granted.
Not all people, however, are so privileged to have either towels or soap. When homes are destroyed or people flee from violence, rarely do they grab these items. Refugees around the world are in need of basis items for survival.
This Lent, as part of our weekly worship, we have been packing health kits that will be distributed around the world by our ministry partner, Lutheran World Relief. For the past two weeks at our 9:30 Sunday worship, young and old have been putting toiletries (comb, nail clipper, and two bars of soap) into towels. This has been done following communion as a visible sign of extending the Communion table out into the world. We are served at God’s table so that we might serve others. While we are packing the kits, the choir for each week is singing about Jesus’s commandment to love one another. There is an important tie for us to make between God’s command to love and our response.
Already we have assembled over 60 of these health kits. Our goal is to put together at least 200 of these kits by Palm/Passion Sunday. To do this, we need everybody’s help. Not only do we need hands to pack the kits on Sunday but we also need folks to bring in the items that we are packing. WE NEED TOWELS AND SOAP!
I have made it a part of my Lenten observance to stop each week at the local Wal-Mart and purchase a few towels (they are selling for $2.74 each), a 12 package of soap, combs, and a few nail clippers. Each kit costs less than $5. Will you join me in this effort?
As I’m standing on line with my items, I think about the folks who will be standing on line at some Refugee camp to receive the very items that I hold in my hand. I say a silent prayer asking God to bless these simple necessities that they might help someone else. I have also been asking that they might help me to focus during this Lenten season on my broken & beloved nature as a Child of God. How do I have both a positive and negative effect on others near and far? How do I share the gifts that I’ve been given? How do I respond to Jesus’s love for me that I experience at the communion table each week? Lot’s to think about thanks to a few towels and bars of soap.
Bring your towels and soap to worship this week and join me in this time of Lenten renewal and spiritual growth. I look forward to seeing you.
in Christ’s Light,
Pastor Walt