Letter from Offering Coordinator/Pastor to Congregation

Dear Friends:

The call to give comes regularly in church life: annual stewardship drives and capital campaigns, work trips to the Gulf South or another hurting place, special holiday events, youth mission trips and local projects. Each giving opportunity challenges us anew to comprehend the importance of all of our participation, and to see past numbers and amounts to the practice of praise inherent in the act of giving.

“Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have,” says the writer of Hebrews to the community of faith. The call was personal, a reminder that our actions as Christians speak more loudly than our words and worship services. God desires our participation in the lives of others, an expectation made even more pointedly by Jesus when he tells his followers, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” (Matt 25:40, NRSV)

Of course, the ‘least of these’ don’t just live in our community anymore. As our world grows smaller, our lives intersect with so many more lives than they once did — and God’s call to share what we have encompasses more people. The people fleeing violence in Sudan, suffering from AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, reeling from devastation in Indonesia, starving in poverty in India — we are called to make a difference in these lives, too. And Week of Compassion makes that possible.

Gifts to Week of Compassion support programs that help families and villages around the world build lives and communities that are healthy, safe and sustainable, changing the lives of millions of God’s children. Accomplished by individual denominations alongside Church World Service, work made possible by Week of Compassion
• helps rebuild communities ravaged by natural disasters
• creates sustainable sources of income for rural villages
• provides micro-credit to women to start poverty-alleviating businesses
• teaches trades and job skills to people maimed by landmines
• offers children a chance to survive past the age of 5 and go to school
• and much more.

Week of Compassion gives each of us an opportunity to respond to God’s call: to share what we have, showing the kindness, compassion and mercy of Jesus in every part of the globe.

Doing good and sharing what we have gladdens the heart of God, who promises that those who respond, “shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail.” (Isa 58:11, NRSV) By participating in Week of Compassion, we can experience the joy of showing and sharing God’s love — offering a hand to that stranger in need, and making a difference in the lives of God’s children around the world.

Yours in Christ,

Offering Coordinator/Pastor