Opportunities to connect!

Here are a couple of opportunities to learn more about our our project and the work of delivering global health.

By following this first link, you can see a clip about Rwanda, and the work Partners in Health is doing there.

http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/537/index.html

Below is an interesting invitation to sit-in on a virtual book group with Tracy Kidder, the author of Mountains Beyond Mountains--our current reading. I have heard Mr. Kidder and he is a polished, earnest, engaging speaker.

To get to the sign-up page for this book group event, go here: http://www.pih.org/home.html

READ, CONNECT, ACT
A Day of Nationwide Book Parties on Global Health

Join PIH supporters across the country as we bring greater awareness of global health and social justice issues to our communities.

Invite friends, family and neighbors to your own book party around Mountains Beyond Mountains orStrength in What Remains. Then meet us online as Tracy Kidder and Dr. David Walton answer your questions in a live webcast on November 12.

HOST A BOOK PARTY
Start by entering your
zip code below:

Tracy Kidder is the author ofMountains Beyond Mountainsand Strength in What Remains.	David Walton is a physician who works with PIH's project in Haiti. See him on a recent episode of 60 Minutes on CBS.

Serving my Fellow (Wo)man--One Hat at a Time

Here is a link to President Monson's Sunday morning address (October Conference 2009) about service.

This is the part that resonated for me:

We become so caught up in the busyness of our lives. Were we to step back, however, and take a good look at what we’re doing, we may find that we have immersed ourselves in the “thick of thin things.” ....

....My brothers and sisters, we are surrounded by those in need of our attention, our encouragement, our support, our comfort, our kindness—be they family members, friends, acquaintances, or strangers. We are the Lord’s hands here upon the earth, with the mandate to serve and to lift His children. He is dependent upon each of us.

You may lament: I can barely make it through each day, doing all that I need to do. How can I provide service for others? What can I possibly do?

I don't know about you, but I am often overwhelmed at the need around me, and underwhelmed at my ability to meet those needs. I also worry that I am "anxiously engaged" in busyness -- activities that steal my best energy and talent but yield little lasting value. But, I am barely making it through the day. How do I find the time? and What can I possibly do?

Here are some comforting words from 2 Corinthians:

“Brothers and sisters: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each must do as already determined, without sadness or compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. Moreover, God is able to make every grace abundant for you, so that in all things, always having all you need, you may have an abundance for every good work. As it is written:

‘He scatters abroad, he gives to the poor;
his righteousness endures forever.’

The one who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You are being enriched in every way for all generosity, which through us produces thanksgiving to God.”

-2 Cor. 9:6-11 (from theNew American Bible)

So now, in my own modest effort, I have looms and yarn all over my house. (Is it possible for yarn to reproduce, because the mess seems to be multiplying!) I know that one little knit hat is a drop in the "slow-infant-mortality" bucket, but it is something. And maybe, who knows, for one family it might mean everything.

--Diane

Welcome to the Weston Humanitarians

“You know well enough that Our Lord does not look so much at the greatness of our actions, nor even at their difficulty, but at the love with which we do them. ” - Saint Therese of Lisieux’s, Story of a Soul:

“In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love.” – Mother Teresa

Welcome to the Relief Society Humanitarian Blog! Since we meet only every other month, this is a place for us to share our ideas and pictures and resources with each other.

Things That Belong Here

• links to interesting articles, blogs, photo sites about humanitarian or service issues
• information about the current project or reading (i.e., patterns, recipes, websites)
• "thoughts" about what we are doing, how we feel about it, how we are involving others
• pictures, videos
• quotes
• suggestions

How to Publish Your Ideas (Pictures, Poems, Suggestions, Information)

If you have anything that you want to post to this blog, please send it to Diane or Camille. In addition, please feel free to comment as often and as voluminously as you would like! We will happily provide the blog space. The best blogs are very interactive. We hope you will interact here!