"Do All You Can"

The cleaning efforts will be going on, in Oklahoma, for a very long time, These families are still looking so shell shocked and lost. I can't even imagine all that they are going through. There have been some bright spots and so many God given miracles, which is awesome, but the truth of the matter is they will need so much help to get back into rebuilt homes and to have their whole town rebuilt as well.

It is wonderful to see all the charitable organizations and institutions that have stepped in. FEMA is there, as well. The head of this organization has been quoted as saying "FEMA won't leave here when the cameras leave". I think that it is kind of sad that he felt the need to say that, but oh well, it is good to have them there.

As a Methodist, I have to say that we have a program that helps in situations like the one in Moore, too. It is called UMCOR. "United Methodist Committee On Relief" UMCOR bases its ministry on words from the Methodist founder, John Wesley. He had a saying that they have taken to heart....

“Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can.”

UMCOR is usually one of the first groups to show up when a disaster strikes. They go world wide to be Christ's hands and feet in countries that feel so much pain at times. 

UMCOR is funded by the individual Methodist churches as they give their tithe to the conference. Of all monies that are designated to UMCOR, 100% go directly to the hurting and needy. that they have gone out to help. 

John Wesley loved this passage......

1 Corinthians 13:12-13

The Message (MSG)

¹² We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!
¹³ But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.

I think the part that says "love extravagantly" says it all!  I'd like to think that that is what our UMCOR is doing. We have so many of our people who have left their families and have moved into Oklahoma. They will be there for as long as these sweet, traumatized, uprooted people need them to be. Humbly doing "all the good they can".

I think John Wesley would be smiling if he could see how this group has taken the word of God and put it into action.

Please remember to continue to pray for these poor families and for all the recovery workers as well, as they do the best they can, to "love extravagantly" in Oklahoma!

Blessings!