A couple of months ago we decided to conjure up a care package to send to an orphanage we visited in the Philippines. It was spurred by a story of the orphanage taking in a little girl who had been burned by boiling noodle soup. In the story Charity (one of the director's of the orphanage) described the quality difference between supplies they can get locally in Manila and the supplies from the United States.
Our initial thoughts were to get together a package consisting of medical supplies, but like all good things it has ballooned from there. Due to the high cost of shipping boxes overseas we figured we should try to maximize the "bang for the shipping buck" so to speak (shippings costs are flat rate per pre-sized box, unlimited weight). As such we made a pitch (via bulletin board) to our Church and Amanda asked her work for donations.
Now, to the real encouraging (to me at least) part of the story is that we have had a good response. Amanda's work donated a bunch of clothes to the cause and we've had a number of people from our Church ask about it and donate to it. A number of these people have connections to the Philippines either through ministry, through heritage or through friendships. It's turned into a "Does my friend know your friend" affair, and funny thing is, in some cases they do!
A positive side effect of this endeavor is that we've gotten to know people from the Church that I'm not sure we would have really met (as opposed to casually met) if we hadn't taken this effort. On Saturday we're going to help out a semi-local ministry (which we didn't know even existed until this project) that has ties to Manila. It should be fun!
p.s. If you feel compelled to help out we're collecting clothing, toys, cloth diapers, medical supplies such as antibiotic creams, burn medication and various sizes of gauze
Our initial thoughts were to get together a package consisting of medical supplies, but like all good things it has ballooned from there. Due to the high cost of shipping boxes overseas we figured we should try to maximize the "bang for the shipping buck" so to speak (shippings costs are flat rate per pre-sized box, unlimited weight). As such we made a pitch (via bulletin board) to our Church and Amanda asked her work for donations.
Now, to the real encouraging (to me at least) part of the story is that we have had a good response. Amanda's work donated a bunch of clothes to the cause and we've had a number of people from our Church ask about it and donate to it. A number of these people have connections to the Philippines either through ministry, through heritage or through friendships. It's turned into a "Does my friend know your friend" affair, and funny thing is, in some cases they do!
A positive side effect of this endeavor is that we've gotten to know people from the Church that I'm not sure we would have really met (as opposed to casually met) if we hadn't taken this effort. On Saturday we're going to help out a semi-local ministry (which we didn't know even existed until this project) that has ties to Manila. It should be fun!
p.s. If you feel compelled to help out we're collecting clothing, toys, cloth diapers, medical supplies such as antibiotic creams, burn medication and various sizes of gauze
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