In June the Canterbury
Stake Relief Society sisters rallied together to respond to the Charity appeal
‘Keep a Child warm’ from Operation Orphan.
A collection of hand knitted blankets, warm clothing and boots filled
the Canterbury Cultural Hall. These were dispatched to Moldova and Ukraine.
A month later we felt a sense of urgency to provide aid for
our Brother and Sisters seeking refuge throughout Europe. There was no clue at the start of this journey
that there would be such emotion involved. Ordinarily, a bunch of enthusiastic
volunteers determined to help collect donations for a worthy cause stays within
its original remit, but what began as a request for the church to get involved
by the Canterbury Stake Relief Society presidency turned into something much,
much more.
In early September, an appeal went out, asking members and the
public to get involved and to donate clothes and goods. The response was
overwhelming! Far from being a Stake response, the appeal drew donations from
far and wide, with other religious groups doing their bit with donations,
prayers and practical help. The Canterbury mosque was one of the religious
groups that put an enormous amount of effort into helping, with help and
support in the form of specially dedicated prayers for the drive. Other church
groups asked us to take their donations and provided assistance in sorting and
boxing items ready for dispatch. The Canterbury Stake Primary children played
their part by putting together hygiene kits for their Faith In God activity,
helping to engender a desire to help amongst our future leaders of the Church.
We knew that the Lord was listening to our prayers when, after being informed
that one of the vans was overladen and we dragged our weary bodies back to
re-distribute the weight, we were met by missionaries with cheery dispositions
who made light work of the task. With a
team of members, we drove to Slough, where the items were gratefully received
by Calaid and then distributed to port Piraeus in Greece
Feeling as though our work was not yet done, we made
arrangements to visit the infamous ‘Jungle’ in Calais, to offer help and to
become better acquainted with what the immediate needs were for our fellow man.
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| Canterbury Stake Relief Society Presidency - Naomi Potter and Marisa Rickard |
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| President Rickard wearing an old Temple Square mission sweater, the slogan has great resonance. |
