What Do We Offer to Drink?

Friday, February 17, A.D. 2006

Dear Friends,

This Sunday thousands of Disciples members and friends across the U.S. and Canada will begin making their gifts to the 2006 Week of Compassion Offering. Our theme this year, "When Did We See You Thirsty?", could not be more timely, more fitting. That question, of course, along with its kindred queries - when did we see you hungry, a stranger, naked, sick, imprisoned? - is central to our knowing Jesus of Nazareth as our Christ and Savior. It is also central to Disciples work and witness in the world through Week of Compassion.

Everyday, everywhere, we encounter thirsty people - oftentimes, literally, as in the people of drought-stricken Kenya or wildfire-weary Oklahoma, Texas and California. Maybe the thirst is of a different sort, like the people of Liberia, Darfur, Afghanistan, and Iraq, who thirst for peace after years of war and violence. Or the earthquake survivors in Pakistan and India, who thirst for warm shelter, clean water and food. Or the hurricane survivors, who thirst now for a home, for community, for some sense of normalcy to return to their lives.

One of the last things Jesus was remembered to have uttered was, "I thirst." Reportedly, someone in the crowd offered him a sponge full of vinegar. We do not have to look very far to see that he still thirsts - our sanctuaries, our neighborhoods, the morning paper, the evening news, this latest WOC Update. The question, perhaps, is not, "when did we see him thirsty?" The question is, "what do we offer him to drink?"

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Earlier today a mudslide buried hundreds of homes in the eastern Philippines. At this writing, at least 300 people are known dead and 1500 more are missing. An elementary school with at least 200 students inside was also engulfed by the slide. The region has seen two weeks of nonstop rains, and the risk of additional slides and flash flooding remains very high.

Church World Service and Action by Churches Together are contacting Philippine church partners regarding a possible response. Week of Compassion will respond on behalf of the Disciples.

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WOC will be posting ON SATURDAY on our website a 2-minute "When Did We See You Thirsty?" PowerPoint presentation. Congregations that have PowerPoint capacity might consider using it as a moment for mission or as a visual backdrop during the offering. Also, for congregations using the new WOC Map/Poster, the latest responses are now posted on the web: www.weekofcompassion.org.

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