Week of Compassion Update

Later this month thousands of Disciples members and friends across the U.S. and Canada will begin making their gifts to the 2008 Week of Compassion Offering. So far, we have been deeply encouraged by the very significant number of requests for additional materials and the many positive comments on the 2008 resources. This week's vicious weather that brought a swarm of deadly tornadoes to the South and more flooding to northern Indiana certainly serves as a reminder of why our offerings are so important to the church's disaster and development ministry fund. Indeed, a quick look at where WOC dollars are working in the world since the beginning of a new year - only a little more than a month old - underscores that.

Consider that, through Week of Compassion, Disciples in 2008 are responding to severe winter weather in El Salvador, China and Afghanistan; flood relief and recovery in Mexico, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, India and the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Java; assistance to uprooted and displaced persons in Uganda, Somalia, Afghanistan, Syria, Jordan and Iraq; critical medical needs in the Dominican Republic; a cyclone in Bangladesh; and staggering humanitarian needs from violence and strife in Kenya and Darfur.

Closer to home, WOC is responding to flood relief and recovery in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Texas; severe winter weather in Oregon, Washington, Nevada, and Michigan; wildfires in California and Texas; hurricane recovery and rebuilding in Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana and Texas; tornado recovery in Kansas and Florida; and now we've just received the first of what will probably be several appeals in response to this week's severe weather.

On a couple of occasions in recent WOC Updates, we reported on a recent report from Oxfam, the large and highly respected UK charity, that the number of weather-related disasters in the world had quadrupled between 1984 and 2005. In the ensuing two years hence and the first five weeks of 2008, there's nothing to suggest that the tide has been reversed!

Giving to Week of Compassion is important. Sharing resources in response to the world's many and staggering needs is part of our faith. People in great need are not forgotten. Our church partners on the frontlines are encouraged. Lives are changed - no less than our own. Thank you.

WOC Administrative Assistant, Elaine Cleveland, recently participated in a Habitat Blitz Build sponsored by WOC, the Office of Disciples Volunteering and the Office of Disciples Women. She's written a very thoughtful report on the importance of partnership to WOC. Click below to read her reflections.