You are here: Home > News >United Church News > Gifts from the heart sent to Afghan children
Gifts from the heart sent to Afghan children
October, 2002
Geneva Jonathan, 9, Dillon Payne, 10, and Orelia Jonathan, 9, write notes to children in Afghanistan to be enclosed in “Gift of the Heart” kits. Children and adults gathered at the First Congregational Church in Williamstown on September 11th to assemble the kits of school supplies, which will be sent overseas through Church World Service.
Photo by Gillian Jones, The North Adams TranscriptRelated articles:
> Churches there for one, all, on 9/11 (Oct., 2002)
> Finding ways to express the inexpressible (Oct. 2002)
> Churches aim for unity on Sept. 11th (Sept., 2002)Links:
> First Congregational Church, Williamstown
> Church World Service
> Gift of the Heart kitsIn Williamstown on September 11th children and adults alike spent the afternoon putting faith into action by assembling “Gift of the Heart” school kits for children in Afghanistan.
“We felt service was the most appropriate way to respond to something so heartbreaking. We think of it as love in action,” said Carol Stein-Payne, Minister of Christian Education at the First Congregational Church UCC in Williamstown.
The church held a special offering the Sunday before September 11th, and used the proceeds to buy school supplies such as pencils and sharpeners, erasers and rulers. The school kits were assembled on the 11th, and children were invited to include notes and drawings for the children in war-ravaged Afghanistan.
“Our primary goal is to help those children,” Stein-Payne said. “Our secondary goal is to help children here deal with their feelings of hurt.”
The church put flyers and posters up around town and in the schools, inviting people to participate. They assembled 60 kits to send overseas through Church World Service.
Stein-Payne said the church also put off until October the regular church school curriculum, devoting the first three-weeks to programs on peace. Each week, children had the chance to create peace rock gardens or Buddhist prayer flags, make candles or to learn about the Heifer Project.
“These things really loom large in the minds of children,” Stein-Payne said.
