East Heights Nooma

Ruth Kit Update #4

Folks, we are in the last few days of collecting items for Ruth Kits and are once again blessed by witnessing the generosity of East Heights and the community beyond. All told, we collected 427 items plus cash donations. We were also blessed by a nice article in the Wichita Eagle's Faith & Values section outlining our mission with Ruth Kits. http://www.kansas.com/194/story/242451.html

This Sunday is the second to the last collection weekend. For this week and next, we are concentrating on bus passes, Quik Trip cards and McDonald's Arch Cards - basically the cash portion of the kits. This is likely to be the hardest part of completing the kits but we have faith that the Lord will provideth.

We can do this one of two ways:
1. Write a check for however much you'd like to contribute. We'll get these ourselves and your work is done!
2. Make a mental note to grab these when you are gassing up at QT, grabbing lunch at Mickey D's or grocery shopping at Dillon's,

Here are the deets on these items:
McDonald's Arch Cards - We'll get these in $10 increments and include one with each kit. This obviously meets a very fundamental need for folks who are not able to access community services.

Quik Trip pre-paid cards - Again, $10 on a card will provide food, a warm cup of coffee and more.

Bus passes - A free ride means a lot. It means getting to a job interview, to GraceMed Clinic for medical attention, or to a shelter when it's too cold to walk. In the article this past week: "The Rev. Deann Smith, executive director of United Methodist Open Door...said that although all the items will be useful, the bus passes will be particularly helpful. 'That's one of the hardest things for agencies to afford right now,' she said. The passes will help the homeless 'really be able to do some job searches, or access some services. That's going to be a real benefit for them.'" Bus passes can be purchased at Dillon's customer service centers or at the bus station.

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All of the cash donations we've received will go to completing the kits wherever we've fallen short in our collection weeks. While we'd like to focus at this point on the gift cards and bus passes, it would also free up cash flow if these items were donated. If you would still like to contribute to Ruth Kits by donating other items, here's what we still need to complete the kits.
• 18 Men's average-size crew socks
• 10 Women's average-size crew socks
• 16 Men's travel-sized deodorant (Please look for men's, we're doing great on women's deodorant!)
• 19 Shampoo (travel-sized)
• 30 knit hats
• 86 scarves
• 45 pairs of gloves

The Dollar Tree has scarves, hats and gloves for $1!! The best deals we've found on the other items are at Walgreens and Target.

Ruth Kit Mission Project hits the Eagle

Click here to read Joe Rodriguez's article in the Wichita Eagle....

Ruth Kit Update #3

East Heights, you continue to amaze me! Last week, we received some generous donations including ziploc and trash bags (things we use to assemble the Ruth Kits) and a good samaritan left 44 hats and gloves for the cause. Overall, we collected more than 250 items. Way to go!

While the hats and gloves give us a good chunk to start with, we have a ways to go before this coming Sunday, Dec. 2, our official collection day for knit hats (stocking caps), gloves and scarves. The best deal we've seen is at Target where they have a 2-pack of gloves or one hat for $1.49. Target also has a 3-piece set (hat, gloves, scarf) for $6.99. If anyone else out there found better deals, let us know so we can spread the word. Right now we have 30 hats, 0 scarves and 17 pairs of gloves. Our goal is 100+ of each.

In addition to collecting hats, gloves and scarves this Sunday, we're still short on some other items from weeks' past:
• Hand towels (or kitchen towels, bar mop towels, etc.) We'll even take the gently used kind!
• 42 Men's average-size crew socks
• 46 Women's average-size crew socks
• 77 Small hairbrushes or combs
• 31 Men's travel-sized deodorant (Please look for men's, we're doing great on women's deodorant!)
• 21 Shampoo (travel-sized)
Remember, we can always take a cash donation if you'd like us to do the shopping. For example, a $22 donation would get all the shampoo needed. $40 would cover the mens' or womens' crew socks. $32 would bring in the men's deodorant. If it's easier for you to just write a check on Sunday, we'll put it to good use.
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Ruth Kits In the News!
Check out the Faith & Values section of this coming Saturday's Wichita Eagle (Dec. 1). We landed an article about this mission project and a photographer came by yesterday to take some pics of the Nooma group sorting the week's donations. Let's hope it brings good results and attention to this need in our community.
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Ruth Kit / Fellowship Opportunity
Wanted to call your attention to a new tradition here at East Heights:  our first Family Tree-Trimming Party!  Here are the details:
When:  Sunday, December 2, at 5:00p.m.
Where:  Holy Grounds Coffee House
What to bring:
1.       A special ornament that you (and your family) have made (or bought) that you would like to share with your church family.  We’ll decorate the large tree in the coffee house with our “family” ornaments.  The more ornaments we have, the more beautiful the tree will be!
2.       Your favorite holiday treat to share with everyone – we’ll have the hot chocolate ready!
3.       A donation for the Ruth Kit project – we are in need of gloves, hats, scarves, men’s and women’s socks, hairbrushes/combs, or donations for Quik Trip and McDonald’s gift cards and bus passes.
This is a REALLY BIG tree, so…we REALLY need you to be there!

Ruth Kit Update for Thanksgiving week

Greetings Friends

 

In the tradition of giving thanks, I want to extend a huge thank you to all who acted on our email last week with where we stand in Ruth Kit collections. We received an amazing 457 items! Your response to the need is greatly appreciated and it is such a blessing to see this outpouring of giving. 

This weekend, we drew much closer to our goal of 100 items in each category. The items of the week were snack food and bottled water. Thanks to you, we met our goal in snack food collecting a whopping 213 snacks for a grand total of 291. Go East Heights!

 

This coming week will be a catch-up week where we hope to meet goals in categories from past weeks. If you happen to be out this week getting ready for your turkey dinner, please consider grabbing some of the following. We still need:

    28 hand towels ($7.99 for a set of six from Bed, Bath & Beyond )

    42 pair of men's crew socks ($9.96 for a pack of 12 at Wal-Mart)

    62 pairs of women's crew socks (2 for $10 for pack of six (12) at Walgreen's)

    79 small hairbrushes or combs ($1.99 at Walgreens for a multiple set)

    18 men's travel-sized deodorants ($. 99 at Target)

    31 travel-sized shampoos ($ .99 at Target)

 

The weekend after next, Dec. 2, we are collecting knit hats, gloves and scarves. So while you are out hitting the big sales this Friday, if you see any great buys on these items, grab some and then let us know so we can spread the word.

 

Thanks for any help you can provide and have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

 

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Most of these items can be found inexpensively at the Dollar Store and in the travel sections at Target, Wal-Mart and Dillon's. Please print off the list above and when you are out shopping this week, considering helping us meet these goals. If you would like to just make a cash donation and have us purchase the items, we are happy to do so. Each fully assembled kit costs around $50. Travel-sized items cost around a dollar each. 

For more information about Ruth Kits, please see

http://ehumc.typepad.com/nooma/ruth-kit-main-page.html

Ruth Kit Update #2

Ruth Kit update from Amanda....

We are making some terrific progress on these kits. I think in this second week, people are starting to get into the rhythm of grabbing the "item of the week" while they are out. It's evident in our collection this week. We've hit our goal for mens crew socks, got a hefty donation on womens' and almost 25% of what we need for wet wipes. We also got some additions to last week's items - hand towels and wash clothes. AND, with a donation discovered this morning in the Mission Center, we have now made our goal for toothbrushes. In all, we collected about 250 items and more than $700 in cash donations in just one weekend!

I've attached a pdf of where our inventory currently stands. This week, we are collecting travel-sized deodorant (men's and women's) and bar soap. When you are spreading the word around, please note that we could use more men's than women's deodorant and need a whole bunch of soap.

Keep up the good work. We're definitely getting somewhere. Go Team Jesus!!!

For more information, and to check our Kit status click here...

Town Hall Meeting

Here is a link to an article about this week's Town Hall meeting on the homeless situation in Wichita....

Update on the meeting here... and here ... and here

... to make a friend?

That's what I have been thinking about for the last hour... What does it take to make a friend? Perhaps it starts something like this, "hi, my name is mark, what's yours?" At least that was my experience this morning. Our small group has been working diligently, since July, on a mission project that was focused on assembling Ruth Kits for the Homeless. Today marked the first day of distribution. Though we only had ten kits full prepared (toward our goal of a thousand) it was indeed a holy moment. It took just under 30 minutes to distribute the kits before the well ran dry. I am guessing that I came across at least 40 or 50 more people, during my travels, that could have benefited from the kits. During my time on the street I made several new friends... Becky, who asked for a kit for her sons...Gary... Mike...William...Daniel and Sunday Dalton...Sue...AJ and his friend John Reeves who blessed me greatly by telling me that he would share the stuff with his friends. The first words out his mouth were, "wow, this is like a survival kit." I think on some levels that has been my hope, that these 'first response kits,' as I have sometimes referred to them, would function as survival kits providing just a few necessities that might help make life a little easier for a day or two. I was surprised that on two occasions folks said no thank-you... and in one instance, Gary was very appreciative and then asked if there was any work he could do for me.

As I was driving back to the Church, in the midst of sort of a surreal meditative moment, I was distracted in my thoughts of those I had just met by a half a dozen construction workers carrying a brand new hot tub into the back yard of one of the houses on our street... WOW!!! what a contrast...

I hope that you will join me in praying for the fruitful future of this mission project, and by praying by name for those I came in contact with today.

Thanks to everyone who has helped with this project...

Ruth Kit Update

If you missed worship today.... we took time to bless the 24 Ruth Kits that are nearly ready for distribution. The donations that we rec'd allowed me to buy the remaining supplies. We were able to purchase 12 hand towels, 24 poncho's, 12 sets of wet wipes, 6 hairbrushes, 10 QT cards and 10 McDonalds cards. I will pick up some bus passes on Thursday. At this point we are only short 14 QT cards and 14 McDonalds cards... if you have an opportunity this week I encourage you to pick up either 1 McDonalds Card($10) or 1 Quik Trip Card ($10) and drop it by the church prior to Wednesday.

If you are able to meet at 6:30pm on Wed. to help complete the kits please post a comment... all of the supplies are downstairs in our room and I will get the gift cards that i have down there prior to 6:30.

Also, please post a comment, or email me, if you are able to help distribute the kits this Friday or Saturday. As of now I am thinking Friday night after 8, or sometime Saturday morning...

Ruth Kits for the Homeless...

Greetings All!!

If you weren't with us this past Sunday, you missed the formal introduction to our summer mission project. Starting this week, I would like all of us to be about the task of collecting items for our "First Response Kits for the Homeless"...

During my summer class a month ago, we were discussing Biblical Narratives of the Hebrew Bible and we came across the story of Ruth and Naomi, at least the first two chapters... As we read through the story and discussed the tradition of "gleaning," I was struck by this notion and how it relates to some of the situations that the homeless find themselves in. In the instance of this biblical narrative, it seems as if Ruth and Naomi have found themselves to be without many resources and find themselves 'gleaning' the leftovers from the barley harvest in order to eat.

As I was thinking about the homeless folks here in Wichita, it occurred to me that the majority of them engage in some act of gleaning just to stay alive. There are many ways that we can respond to the needs of the homeless, but it struck me that perhaps, on some foundational level, we should at least make an attempt to provide some simple resources for these folks in their time of great need. Wichita has a number of ministries that provide meals and occasional shelter, and we, as United Methodists have ministries like the United Methodist Open Door, but what happens when the doors close at 5:00 each night or when the doors are closed on the weekends??? ( I would say that we close the door on these homeless folks in a number of other ways, but I'll leave that soap box for another post) Sooo... in light of all of these thoughts, and this text, I thought it would be fruitful for us to start providing some sort of first response relief for the homeless population in Wichita. As an attempt to bring that relief, Julie and I, with the help of several others, have collected some things that we think might bring relief, at least short term, to the homeless population. Please understand that this is a work in progress and we expect that we will have to adjust the contents of these Ruth Kits at some point... so we look forward to your input and comments.

Originally my goal was 25 kits, but after being at the Homeless vigil the other night, I think our goal should be somewhere around 1000. The content of the kits can be found here... please note that there are subtle differences between the male and female kits. Julie and I purchased all of these items (except for the gift cards and bus passes) at Target, and most of them came from the travel size area of the Health and Beauty section of the store. We invite you to participate in any way you can... in addition to providing complete kits we would also appreciate a supply of any one item that would add to the building of the kits or a financial contribution to help with the purchase of the string packs and other bulk items. In addition to the primary contents of the kit, we are also in need of large and small ziploc bags, kitchen size trash bags, and bottled water. We would also invite you to participate by providing $10.00 gift cards from McDonald's and Quik Trip, as well as single ride city bus passes.

After we compile a number of these kits, we will embark on a process of distribution and would invite your particpation in that as well. Thanks in advance for your participation in this mission project...