Are you aware of the Love Package project? The District United Methodist Men have been participating in the project for a couple of years.
The following update by John Sherer tells what the project is about and how it has yielded big results.
2013 LOVE PACKAGES MISSION PROJECT UPDATE: By John W.Sherer
In 2012 the Miami Valley District United Methodist Men initiated a new mission project for churches in the MVD.
It's called Love Packages, a Ministry aimed at putting used Christian literature and bibles into the hands of people around the third world.
This is an ecumenical Ministry. Churches throughout the USA are collecting old bibles, used Sunday school, Bible school materials, daily devotionals, Christian books, cassettes, CDs, videos, DVDs, or magazines.
These materials are collected from our church by Wayne Thomas. He then takes all the materials collected from the Miami Valley area churches, transports them to the central processing center in Butler, Illinois where volunteers sort and pack the materials into containers to be shipped overseas. Missionaries around the world can use these to teach God's Word and build His kingdom.
The following represents the total distribution of this organization in 2013:
Country Pounds # Packages
Ghana 80,000 4,427
Guatemala 80,000 4,582
Haiti 160 8
Honduras 2,306 88
India 520,000 25,514
Jamaica 40,000 1,318
Kazakcstan 39 1
Kenya 320,000 15,266
Liberia 120,000 5,045
Malawi 147 4
Mexico 160 10
Nicaragua 491 18
Nigeria 40,000 1,582
Peru 5 1
Philippines 160,000 6,233
South Africa 323,000 14,104
Tanzania 405,000 16,030
Thailand 80,000 3,407
Trinidad 40,000 1,865
Mixed 1,800 53
Totals 2,213458 or 1,107 tons 99,564
Volunteers over the year 2,020
Faith Community and the Common Cup Churches donated over 1 ton of materials in 2013.
This seems a good time to encourage members (following Christmas) to look through your shelves for books, and materials listed above that you are not using and bring them to your church and create a box or large tub marked Love Packages where your members can drop off these items. Then call Wayne Thomas at 1-513-932-5504 or Leo Scholl, MVDUMM Coordinator at 937-901-0165 for a pick up or for a presentation on this project.
Praise God many people in these third world countries are being saved through these efforts. Remember Proverbs 11:30 "He that wins souls is wise".
John Fristoe, Editor