Relief Kit Collection to Aid Iraqi People

Is this SJA or McDonald’s? Cars are streaming into the parking lot. Nothing is unusual about that at 8:30 am on a Sunday morning. These are just people who want to get a good seat for the nine o’clock service, right?

I see people stopping at different areas and waiting a short time and then driving on to another area and stopping. Is this some sort of drive through church? Some are parking, others are continuing on. Did they get a Happy Meal? Why all the excitement and people everywhere running around? I don’t see any golden arches, but I do see a large cardboard box with balloons on the top of a van, signifying one of the stopping areas.

I drive up and quickly I am surrounded by busy happy people waiting to retrieve my box, the Iraq relief kit. What special service, the crew lifts my boxes from the car and delivers them to awaiting parked vans. The crew stacks and restacks until the boxes are super-packed into a van and off it goes to an undisclosed location. It is an amazing sight to see. McDonald’s would be proud to have this many customers.

Actually, it’s business as usual for SJA, the awesome people who follow Jesus with his out stretched arms waiting to help anyone in need. One of those people ready to help anyone in need is Mary Ahler. She is a mother of two, a son and daughter, and a grandmother of three. She began attending SJA 19 years ago when she became a single mom. She presently works at William Mitchell College. Her previous career has been in office management of non-profits.

Mary Ahler receives relief kit, gives smile

The parking lot excitement started when Mary picked up a flyer stating “Relief kits urgently needed for Iraq”. She immediately felt “I can do this” and then came the thought “others can too”. By others she immediately thought of SJA. Due to the lack of storage space, Peter Eichten said SJA would be unable to help. Mary quickly solved that problem by lining up people with vans and garages for storage.

All of this occurred in a very short time period. The word was out and it spread like wild gossip to suburban areas, neighborhood groups, the Cathedral bulletin, scout troops, … even Fargo, North Dakota. One girl went door to door in her neighborhood of Hastings to collect cash so that she and her Mom could purchase items and fill boxes. They filled 20!

Mary took her three grand daughters shopping so that they could fill a box. After purchasing the necessary articles, the girls wanted her to buy them some things. She reiterated that this shopping trip was to help the people of Iraq not themselves. As only grandchildren can do, they persisted with their begging, and she continued to use different stories to try and make them understand. They finally understood and questioned, “The kids of Iraq have no toys at all?”

Mary recruited her children to help, including the granddaughters and they could be seen buzzing about helping out everyone.

It was a huge success judging by the many, many cars lined up to drop off a box or boxes. Seventeen vehicle loads went to garages for storage. The counting of boxes was lost in the volume that came in and continued to straggle in all week. Mary estimates 800-1000 will be donated by the end.

So it wasn’t the golden arches of McDonalds in the SJA parking lot, but people following Jesus’ outstretched arms to help those in need, just like the mural on the side of the building.

Sharing practical things-tooth brushes, soap, shampoo-is a way of signaling that we are aware of the suffering of others and want to respond. The Mennonite Central Committee, who sponsors the worldwide relief kits, takes these ordinary, but necessary things that are donated and delivers them to people in emergencies and with chronic needs around the world.

These are valuable gifts both for the receiver and the giver. Relief kits are a favorite item of request in disasters. This time the relief kits are bound for Iraq.

Follow up information:

Ten Thousand Villages store is also accepting the boxes and will continue until April 19th. (What an interesting store. As the name implies it sells wares from third world countries. It is a haven for unique gifts. Visit it at 867 Grand Avenue in St. Paul. It is in Victorian Crossing West.) This contact resulted because Mary’s daughter Mindy works as the assistant manager.
Ten Thousand Villages on Grand

The boxes will be trucked to South Dakota and on to Akron, PA with others that have been collected. Then these steps will occur:

• Step 1: Preparing the kit
  
  The first step is to reassemble the kits and double check the contents and quality. Despite the best intentions of contributors who want to add “extras,” it is important that the kits include only the items from the prescribed list. Consistency of contents is crucial during customs declaration and prevents jealousy when the kits are distributed. The kits items are then packed into 5-gallon plastic buckets with lids, purchased by MCC. Experience has shown that relief kit buckets are useful long after contents are gone. People use them for carrying water, storing grain, pickling vegetables and, at the end of the day, as pieces of furniture!

  Step 2: The kit is on its way
  

  Once 2300 kits have been collected, a 40 foot ocean cargo container is brought to the warehouse and loaded by volunteers, filling it to the brim. “We don’t like to ship any air” say the volunteers. The container is then taken to a pier in Baltimore or New York. The container is transferred onto an ocean cargo ship, some of which carry up to 2000 containers at one time. Approximately three weeks later the container is off loaded at a port in Jordan.

  Step 3: The journey to Iraq
  

  The MCC office in the Jordan capital is notified of its arrival and MCC workers travel to the port to confirm the shipment. They make arrangements for clearance and transport to Iraq through a local shipping agent, someone MCC knows and trusts. The kits are exempt from taxation as humanitarian goods but must still be checked and cleared by Jordanian customs. Local dock workers unload the container and transfer the buckets to a truck for transport to Iraq. It takes five dock laborers about three hours to unload one container. When the buckets are secured and documentation is in order, they begin the 1,385 kilometer/831 mile trip to the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.

  Step 4: Entering Iraq
  

  At the Jordan-Iraq border, officials again check the cargo and documents before allowing the shipment into Iraq. Once the kits arrive in Baghdad they must clear Iraqi customs, again exempt from tax, before going to their final storage facilities. Relief kit buckets are currently being pre-positioned in warehouses throughout Iraq for distribution by MCC partner agencies in Iraq.

Nancy Lynch says, "Joy is being a wife, Mom of fourteen, eight with varying disabilities and living at home, Grandma of thirteen, and Great Grandma of three. Serenity is listening and watching the ocean, alone, at our home on Maui. Passion is friends, photography, reading, swimming and children." Nancy can be reached at nalynch@aol.com.

Go to www.mcc.com and see all that the Mennonite Central Committee is involved in. A great admiration for them will come from this. Thanks to Mary for all her hard work and her determination to make this a grand success.

Oh yes, in case you weren’t around that Sunday, the other drive up parking action was the sales of the pink PEACE signs and the Support the Troops signs.

Notice of Another Opportunity The 2003 Twin Cities MCC Sale is an Auction and Festival Benefiting World Relief & Development. This is one of many events held across the country by members of the Mennonite Church. Funds raised at the sale go to support things like the Relief Kits for Iraq - a program of the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC). They do many other relief and development projects across the world. The Mennonites have a long-standing tradition of peace and justice. The Auction and Festival will be held: May 10th 2003 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Hennepin Technical College 9000 Brooklyn Blvd. Brooklyn Park, MN www.tcmccreliefsale.org/MCC/index.htm More information on the Mennonite Central Committee can be found at www.mcc.org.

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