MessagesofLove_ProvidingtheBareNecessities

Welcome to The Salvation Army USA Eastern Territory Women's Ministries Website

Women’s Ministries Programs

Theme:

“Messages of Love”

Providing the Bare Necessities

Brenda Smith

Service—May 2008

Introduction

Imagine that you find yourself on the street with only the clothes on your back. You feel relieved when you find a place to stay at a local shelter where you are able to shower and wash your clothes. Because of the generosity of caring people you are provided with a change of clothes, including new underwear. Or imagine that you are a member of the working poor. You can barely provide clothes for your children. Sometimes the bare necessities of life seem out of reach. Then because of the generosity of a women’s group you receive a gift of underwear. The kindness of strangers makes your life bearable.

Service Idea

This program aims to provide new underwear for shelters or other agencies that work with families. Decide if this is going to be a one–time, quarterly or year–long project. Introduce it in advance so that the members of the group can watch for sales and invite

their friends to participate. You could involve other groups such as your advisory board, men’s club or a service club to participate in this project.

Program Ideas

Speakers

Secure a speaker from a shelter that deals with women and children to talk about their program. Contact a domestic violence women’s shelter for a speaker who can share the fact that many families arrive at their facilities with only the clothes they are wearing.

Activities

♥ Have the women pin the underwear that they are contributing to a clothesline.

♥ Ask some of the women to share about their bargain buys.

♥ A “bloomers” fashion show could be fun. For a pattern to make basic bloomers check this Website http://members.aol.com/ilove2lace/bloomer.html or purchase them through the Internet at the following Website: www.bloomers4u.com. This site also includes the history of bloomers.

♥ Have one of the women do a report on the history of underwear.

Check the Internet for information. Here are a couple of sites:

www.premium-ads.com/history.

html, www.mum.org/underhis.html

Decorations

In keeping with the “bare” theme, use teddy bears for centerpieces. At the conclusion of the program, these could be donated, along with the underwear, to a family shelter.

Refreshment

Serve food associated with bears:

baked goods made with honey, ants on a log (celery sticks filled with peanut butter and

covered with raisins) or any type of berry food. If you want to accent the “bare” necessities theme, you could serve bread and water.

Devotions

You Clothed Me

Read Matthew 25:34–40.

Picture yourself standing in a beautiful green valley with a lone cabin in the distance. Smoke billows from the chimney with the smell of freshly baked bread in the air. A clothesline with newly laundered clothes flaps in the sunshine. A cat lazily suns itself on the front porch. It’s a beautiful, quiet, peaceful, relaxing picture, isn’t it?

Now picture this: You are sitting in bumper–to–bumper traffic, not going anywhere. You can’t find anything on the radio. Horns are honking and your mind is going a mile a minute thinking of all the things you need to be doing rather than being stuck in this traffic! Not as relaxing a picture, is it?

We live in a very fast–paced, hectic world where we don’t even want to wait three minutes for popcorn to be done in the microwave! So although the first picture of relaxing sounds good, the reality is that none of us thinks we have the time to relax. A number of years ago there was a television commercial that showed a woman whose kids were screaming. Her house was a total mess. Clearly she was overwhelmed by it all and cries, “Calgon, take me away.” The next scene shows the same woman in a luxurious, bubble filled bathtub. She is now at peace. Have you ever wondered what happened when she got out of that tub? She still has to deal with the problems she had before the bath. Calgon bubble bath did not take away the problems. In fact, since she left the kids screaming and fighting, who knows what she will find when she steps out of the bathroom.

As we encounter our daily realities, we must rely on what God’s Word says more than ever. God’s people are expected to live their faith in the way they treat others. If we say we love God, then we must demonstrate that love by the way we care about people who are made in His image (1 John 4:20, 21) The little things we can do on a daily basis to help others will bless us. Matthew 25:34–40 talks about the acts of kindness that we can do. Many of them won’t cost us anything other than our time. Others will involve sacrificial giving.

Even small acts of kindness are priceless and can help make life bearable. It can be mowing the yard for an elderly person or a single mom. Preparing a meal for someone who is sick or for new parents is a wonderful gesture. We all are given opportunities on a daily basis to help others. It can be as simple as smiling as someone passes by or treating others with respect. A “please,” “thank you” or “excuse me” goes a long way. It could even be providing the bare necessity for someone in need. God’s Word to us today is that He expects us to do something to help others, and that He will bless those who obey.